Some Thoughts

The first time I heard someone use this quote it was within the context of complaining about the subversive nature of grant money. Which also spiraled into a heated discussion about whether or not the green movement should reject the use of corporate grants. I was young at the time and it went over my head a bit so I’m sure I missed more than I’ve forgotten. But there was one thing that I could not forget and it was this quote. “For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” It so succinctly captured the overall tension. Some time later I would hear it again and again within different contexts but with the same lesson. In each case it made clear that those who are not in power should not look to those who are in power for real solutions to their problems. Typically the powerful will only allow change that ultimately keeps them in power.

The original context of this quote can be found in Lorde’s collection of essays and speeches titled Sister Outsider. Lorde was a fearless truth teller and she did not suffer foolishness. If you are a sensitive soul her writings about society will either awaken you to the radical need for change or inspire a defensive posture. I doubt many can read her biting commentaries without coming away bruised. On page 112 you will find Lorde speaking to a room of white feminists who invited her to speak as one of two women of color in their midst. She admonishes their lack of interest in a non-white perspective. She asks them: 

"And what does it mean in personal and political terms when even the two Black women who did present here were literally found at the last hour? What does it mean when the tools of a racist patriarchy are used to examine the fruits of that same patriarchy? It means that only the most narrow perimeters of change are possible and allowable." (p. 110)

Lorde pulled no punches. It is clear that the fight for women's rights was too important to her to allow careless organizing. The fight for women's right to life, liberty and happiness was too grand to allow the old ways of bigotry to take root. She directed the women to embrace their differences under the umbrella of being women. She so eloquently tells them:

"As women, we have been taught either to ignore our differences, or to view them as causes for separation and suspicion rather than as forces for change."

She argued that the way to truly dismantle the misogynistic system was by embracing the very differences they were told should separate them. As Lorde put it: 

"Those of us who stand outside the circle of this society's definition of acceptable women; those of us who have been forged in the crucibles of difference - those of us who are poor, who are lesbians, who are Black, who are older - know that survival is not an academic skill...It is learning how to take our differences and make them strengths. For the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house."

I was two years old when she said this. I stand on the shoulder of giants.