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Quote by Audre Lorde

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The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House

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Audre Lorde
Audre Lorde

Audre Lorde, an American writer, poet, and speaker, was born on February 18, 1934, and passed away on November 17, 1992. Known for her profound insights into race, gender, and sexual orientation, her work encompasses poetry, prose, and novels, which have had a profound impact on contemporary literature and social movements. more

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“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. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change. And this fact is only threatening to those women who still define the master's house as their only source of support.”

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“It is unthinkable and monstrous in patriarchy for women to demonstrate that we care as much about justice and dignity, as much about freedom for ourselves and our sisters -- to the laying down of our lives, if necessary -- as men and women have always cared about justice and freedom for men. It is the ultimate anti-patriarchal act. It is heresy. It is revolution.”

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“Many women I met during my time in the academy were very good to me. But in the wake of everything I lost, I wanted to reclaim parts of me with some semblance of wholeness before everything was burned in the fire. To do that, I needed to reconnect with people who knew me before I began chasing whatever success I thought I'd find being an acclaimed Womanist scholar. I need the people who knew me when my dreams were big, and my spirit and heart were unbroken.”

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“Talking to women and men separately about the same issue(s) made me realize something vital about modern love — we all want the same thing — to have a harmonious relationship, but our maps of getting there are starkly different. Women are discarding the old maps, and rewriting a new trajectory for their lives, while men have only begun to notice the roadblocks. We haven’t bridged the gap when it comes to heterosexual love. The only way we can fix this is if we start talking to each other, instead of at each other.”

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