In Maya Angelou's "Still I Rise," what techniques are used to express inequality?

One technique that Angelou uses in "Still I Rise" is a tone that confronts inequality in a direct manner.

Upon reading "Still I Rise," it is clear that the poem's speaker does not accept inequality.  The speaker wants to bring attention to inequality, challenging it directly. The poem's first word is reflective of this confrontational tone.  The use of "You" makes it clear that the speaker is addressing an imbalance of power. Those who perpetuate this...

One technique that Angelou uses in "Still I Rise" is a tone that confronts inequality in a direct manner.

Upon reading "Still I Rise," it is clear that the poem's speaker does not accept inequality.  The speaker wants to bring attention to inequality, challenging it directly. The poem's first word is reflective of this confrontational tone.  The use of "You" makes it clear that the speaker is addressing an imbalance of power. Those who perpetuate this unfairness are called into question.  When the speaker says, "You may write me down in history / With your bitter, twisted lies," the only suitable path that the speaker sees towards inequality is to directly call it out.  The confrontation is heightened when the speaker asks if their "sassiness," "haughtiness," or "sexiness" causes discomfort.  Finally, challenging the forces of inequality with figurative language like "I walk like I’ve got oil wells / Pumping in my living room" or meeting power imbalances with "You may kill me with your hatefulness, / But still, like air, I’ll rise," Angelou suggests that when inequality persists, confronting it with immediacy is the only suitable response.  

The closing of the poem affirms that confronting inequality without hesitation is the only way to move past it.  In order to achieve a realm whereby "nights of terror" can be "left behind, " or the hope of seeing a clear "daybreak," and the joy in reveling in the ancestral "gifts," Angelou argues that one cannot run away from inequality.  It must be challenged in order to be defeated.  Only through its defeat can we hope to say, "Still I Rise."