hi guys! a couple friends and i are trying to make academia more accessible by summarizing dense texts. today im gonna talk about “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house” by audre lorde!!!

Audre Lorde decides to go to a feminist conference that is led predominantly by white women. At the beginning of this chapter, she is upset because she says that the white women made no effort to bring Black women, women of color, lesbian women etc to this conference!

Essentially, she is talking about the concept of intersectionality, which was coined about a decade later by Kimberlé Crenshaw. It means that all women have different identities and experiences. We must examine how women can lie at multiple “intersections” like race, class, etc!

She also states that women were always trained to ignore these differences. Lorde argues that in order to effectively fight patriarchy (the male dominated society we live in)we need to find power within these differences!

White feminists being “tolerant” of women from different races, class statuses, etc doesn’t do much because it’s the BARE MINIMUM. She argues that liberation can only occur when ALL voices are included, and when differences are embraced and analyzed, not merely "tolerated."

This is when she talks about the idea of the “master’s house”. The master’s house can be considered any oppressive structure or institution. In order to topple these oppressive structures and institutions we should NOT imitate the oppressor or follow their blueprint!

For example, a great example of using the master’s tools would be Jay Z saying his NFL deal was him “playing chess, not checkers”. Jay Z, a billionaire black capitalist, is basically saying that working with the NFL (an oppressive corporation) is a win for Black liberation.

Black peoples conditions as a whole have not changed for the better since this deal. The only person who benefited was Jay Z himself. As Lorde stated, “using the master tools may allow us to beat the master at his own game, but it will never bring about genuine change”.

She then goes on to drag the white ladies in the audience again! The audience is mostly rich white feminist academics. She states that their feminism is performative and useless because they do not include the narratives of poor women, Black women, women of color, lesbians, etc.

While the white women lollygag at these feminist conferences, it is poor women and WOC who are tending their house and raising their kids. White women can not exist without depending on the labor of these women, so why must their feminism exclude them?

She then talks about how WE DO NOT NEED TO EXPLAIN OUR OPPRESSION TO OUR OPPRESSORS. It is not our task to tell men about why misogyny exists or white people about racism. Instead we need to channel our energy on building community and prioritizing our survival.

like @earlxsweat YOU DON’T NEED TO SPEAK ABOUT THIS

She then ends her speech by emphasizing the fact that racism and homophobia exist. And mainstream feminists need to abandon this idea that sexism is a one-size-fits-all thing. These intersections need to be examined in order for liberation to happen!

TO SUM IT ALL UP:
•difference must be celebrated and acknowledged in order for any meaningful critique and analysis to happen
•imitating oppressors and using their blueprint for “success” will not get you liberation
•FUCK THE MASTERS HOUSE AND THEY TOOLS YUPPPPPP

if you want to read this great drag of white/mainstream feminism by audre lorde here is the link! https://collectiveliberation.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Lorde_The_Masters_Tools.pdf

sorry this is my first time trying this and please dm me with any questions if it came across as too dense. also sorry i post this late I have unmedicated ADD and it’s hard for me to read so this shit took me all day TEEHEHHE