The entire poem is about equality, specifically between the speaker and audience but also more generally of the kind of person the speaker represents. The poem suggests a female speaker but contains no overt references to feminism. The speaker repeatedly challenges their audience, suggesting that the audience is not only hostile and hateful, but also envious or resentful of the speaker’s self-confidence. The speaker poses related questions about this attitude: “Does my sassiness upset you?" and "Does my haughtiness offend you?”
The equality suggested is one that comes with the ascent of the oppressed, confirmed through the repetition of “I rise” and related images: moon, sun, tides, and the concept of hope. At the end, the speaker’s African American identity is confirmed by the reference to the “ancestors” and “the dream and the hope of the slave.”
The gender of the speaker is not provided, but there is an apparent reference to female genitalia (as “diamonds”) and sexuality in the lines “I dance like I've got diamonds/ At the meeting of my thighs.”
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46446/still-i-rise
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