The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House (Reflection)

When I was reading “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House,” by Audre Lorde I felt this text was short, but I felt like it was hard to read. Hard to read not in the sense of context, but just the way Audre Lorde went on about how she is underrepresented and the victim. The way she went about talking about it I felt as though she was just complaining about how bad things are for her. The more I read through the article though, (5 times to be exact) the more I saw where she was coming from.  I can feel her pain in the article. She is attending a conference on diversity in American women but her groups of American women are not very well represented at this conference. Audre Lorde, as an advocate for women everywhere especially those of an underrepresented should be upset by this conference. 

She goes on in the article to talk about how she as a feminist is fighting a different battle then her white “sisters.” Being black she seems to be fighting not only a battle for her sex but also her race as well. Audre Lorde acknowledges that her and the white feminist are different but should still be fighting for the same cause as women. She says towards the end of her article, “Women of today are still being called upon to stretch across the gap of male ignorance and to educate men as to our existence and our needs. Now we hear that it is the task of women of color to educate white women – in the face of tremendous resistance—as to our experience, our differences, our relative roles in our joint survival.” This quote here really sums up the article. The idea that we are different but we must ban together and fight the good fight and look at how we can help each other out with our differences. 

This article really made me think about people in the homosexual community. There was a lot of talk during the SCWAAMP exercise about gay marriage and states that have made it legal etc. Well if gays and lesbians were to split and fight the same battle would much really get accomplished. If they really let their gender (or race) get in the way would they get legalized gay marriage for all homosexuals. They must stand united to fight and get gay marriage legalized in all states. This is what Audre Lorde is talking about we have to acknowledge and teach our fellow activists that we are different but we can all stand united and fight for a higher cause. 

Here is a link to a quote in a YouTube video. It states, “The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love and let it come in” (Audre Lorde). We need to love each other and except the fact that we are all different. We are doing great things as a nation, and it is done by loving your neighbor. Don’t hide the fact that we are different, fight for different, not against it. 

In class I hope to really get the class to understand where Audre Lorde is coming from because although she is bitter on the surface she really just wants change, for all the underrepresented groups. I saw this in many of the poems I found of hers online. She has one about power that I will post under this to see where she is coming from.  Also check out more other invigorating poetry.

POWER- BY AUDRE LORDE