Summary
Lorde begins by positing that western culture tends to sort people into binaries as a way of preserving the oppressor/oppressed dynamic necessary for the continuation of capitalist exploitation. Nonetheless, oppressed people are expected to understand the dominant culture, accommodate it, and teach its members about their own marginalized cultures. Indeed, in a culture obsessed with profit, any display of difference between people is considered wasteful and harmful. Difference itself does not create division; rather, says Lorde, the desire to repress, ignore, and abolish difference creates division. Lorde then names and defines some of the ways this desire to tamp out difference can manifest: sexism, racism, heterosexism, classism, ageism, and elitism. Individuals must make an effort to recognize and reclaim differences, seeing them as potential catalysts for positive change rather than dangerous expressions of deviance. Lorde explains the existence of the "mythical norm," an idealized, perfectly normal person within every society, which every real person deviates from. People who deviate in one way can forget that others, who deviate in different ways, are also oppressed, which Lorde argues, is why white feminists forget that gender isn't the only basis of discrimination and oppression. Class differences, too, emerge in unacknowledged ways—for instance, poetry is often devalued, but is also the art form that requires fewest material resources and is therefore favored by poorer women. The most dangerous threat to women gaining power is the refusal among feminists to recognize racial differences. White woman academics even refuse to teach the work of women of color, falsely arguing that these women's experiences are inconceivably different from their own. Essentially, these women refuse to view Black women or other women of color as complex and human, so they can't imagine that they are simultaneously similar to themselves in one respect (their womanhood) and different in others. But this refusal simply means that white feminists cannot fully understand the problems facing women as a whole.
Lorde then points out one problem Black women deal with that white women cannot understand: when solving problems within their own community, they must ensure that criticism of Black men does not serve racist interests. White women face a different challenge—resisting the temptation to join racist, sexist institutions, which falsely promise them equality or at least safety. Thus, white women fear that the men in their lives will become avatars of patriarchy, whereas Black women fear everyday patriarchal and white supremacist violence. Indeed, similar problems exist in Black communities, where the specific concerns of women are silenced in the name of unity. Caught between these groups, Black women, who face low wages, sexual violence, and a host of other unique problems, are completely dismissed. Even within the demographic group of Black women, other identities (Lorde cites her own sexuality) are dismissed in a similar manner. Lorde thinks that homophobia and heterosexism, especially against lesbians, are particularly prevalent in Black communities. In spite of a rich tradition of "women-bonding" in African-American culture, heterosexual Black women accuse their lesbian peers of being a threat to Black people. Thus Black lesbians have no political home, facing homophobia and racism simultaneously. Lorde pointedly states that Black lesbians are fighting violence against other Black women, not perpetuating it.
Women, says Lorde, have been taught to embrace only one type of difference: that between men and women, in which they are always classed as inferior. This urgently needs to change, argues Lorde, for the sake of the earth itself. Women must learn to recognize differences in a way that allows for equality rather than hierarchy. Here, Lorde repeats her well-known statement, "the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house." Lorde concludes with an excerpt from her poem "Outlines," which lays out the dire stakes of the need for unity across difference.
Analysis
In this essay, Lorde returns to many of the themes and arguments that appear in her essay "The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle The Master's House." Here, as in that essay, Lorde speaks to the fact that every person is oppressed in some respects and privileged in others. Her essay moves through evaluations of bias in different communities at dizzying speeds, driving home the point that every person, no matter how oppressed they are in any particular respect, is probably the bearer of some kind of discriminatory attitude and the beneficiary of some type of exploitation. Of course, this does not mean that everyone is equally oppressed. Lorde ensures that nobody will think this is her point by bringing up the sobering difference between white women's and Black women's parenting concerns: white women hope their sons will not be misogynists, while Black women fear their sons will be killed by white supremacist violence. What it does mean, though, Lorde says, is that everyone is in some respects tempted by the promises of mainstream capitalist culture. Wealthy white women are especially at risk of falling for these promises, Lorde explains, but they're not the only ones. For instance, Black women are under pressure to reject lesbians in the interest of communal unity. The threat of white supremacy from the outside only makes it easier to succumb to this pressure, Lorde suggests. Still, the choice to identify with a dominant culture and reject someone who is marginalized in a different way than yourself offers short-term security at the most, not real safety or solidarity.
Tellingly, Lorde personifies dominant culture not as a real person but as a hypothetical type, the "mythical norm." This suggests that even the most privileged person in the world (for example, a wealthy, white, Christian, heterosexual American man) in some way deviates from the dominant culture's definition of normalcy. Therefore, in spite of the very real differences in power and privileged between different demographics, even an extremely privileged person should not assume that he is safe choosing the "master's tools." This means that, rather than fighting to get to or stay at the top of an exploitative hierarchy, every person should openly acknowledge the ways they deviate from the "mythical norm." Moreover, they should explicitly celebrate and make use of the way differences appear in their communities.
Finally, careful readers of this essay will notice that Lorde begins to subtly discuss environmental issues at its conclusion. She wants women to unify and embrace their differences, and the stakes are high: "the future of our earth may depend upon the ability of all women to identify and develop new definitions of power..." she writes. The old definitions have served neither women nor "the earth that supports us." In the poem that concludes the essay, Lorde writes that failure may result in women's blood being shed "upon a dead planet." Of course, Lorde may be speaking hyperbolically, using "the earth" as a catchall term for society, but the word is repeated often enough and with enough emphasis that its more literal meaning becomes impossible to ignore. Ultimately, Lorde suggests, racism, sexism, homophobia, and every other type of human inequality have extremely far-reaching consequences, and the environmental movement is intertwined with the movement to eradicate these inequalities.
