Building Community: Audre Lorde and the “Master’s Tools” (An Essay)

Taking back the market and resolving the issues of capitalism’s racist, patriarchal, heteronormative, and elite nature, can’t be solved by using capitalism itself. According to Audre Lorde, neither can we end the struggles of women when the master’s tools of racism and cis-heteronomativity are used to exclude a big majority of Trans and Queer people out of the conversation. Reading Lorde’s article The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House has made me reflect on issues that surround me every day.

I am proud to say that I am a feminist but ashamed to be part of a movement that is often racist and cis-heteronormative. It is often this way because the strongest voices in the movement appear to come exclusively from white, straight, cis-women. To share an example, when these white cis-women talk about the gender gap, they always mention how women earn $0.79 for every dollar that white men make. However, they often fail to mention that those statistics are for white women only. In fact, according to Pay Scales’ 2019 survey, Black women earn on average $0.61 for every dollar that a white man makes, while Latinx women earn on average only $0.53 for every dollar that a white man makes. The statistics are even more jarring when women’s sexuality and Trans* women are included in the numbers. Furthermore, white feminists often fail to include women+ from conversations and the organization of the movement if they are women of color, Queer, or Trans*.

There are many more issues within this movement, but if white women want to be free from the patriarchy they must include and work with women+ of all different races, sexes, sexualities, and other identities. I think that this is what Audry Lorde meant when she said that “Difference must not be merely tolerated, but seen as a fund of necessary polarities between which our creativity can spark like a dialectic". Here Lorde speaks about the creativity that can come about from having people of different backgrounds come together to share ideas and ultimately build different tools. It is only with the use of these new tools, (creatively concocted from the minds of the oppressed) that we can finally stop using the master’s tools and instead use our own to “dismantle” his house. It is only when the oppressed come together and celebrate each other that we can create new systems that benefit all rather than the few.

“The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house”. This statement by Audre Lorde reflects the reality of our society. If people like me, who hold one or more marginalized identities decide to actively participate and perpetuate the current system, nothing will change. Instead, we should reach out to one another, to those who are also oppressed but may seem different from us. By coming together and celebrating each other, we can free us all.

References

Gender Pay Gap Ratios, Stats and Infographics (2019) https://www.payscale.com/data/gender-pay-gap

Lorde, A. (1984). The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House. Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Crossing Press.