stoicism and silence does not serve us nor our communities, only the forces of things as they are.
Audre LordeI am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.
Audre LordeInstitutionalized rejection of difference is an absolute necessity in a profit economy which needs outsiders as surplus people.
Audre LordeFor the masterโs tools will never dismantle the masterโs house. They may allow us to temporarily beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change. Racism and homophobia are real conditions of all our lives in this place and time. I urge each one of us here to reach down into that deep place of knowledge inside herself and touch that terror and loathing of any difference that lives here. See whose face it wears. Then the personal as the political can begin to illuminate all our choices.
Audre LordeIt is never easy to demand the most from ourselves, from our lives, from our work. To encourage excellence is to go beyond the encouraged mediocrity of our society is to encourage excellence. But giving in to the fear of feeling and working to capacity is a luxury only the unintentional can afford, and the unintentional are those who do not wish to guide their own destinies.
Audre Lorde