Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider: Essays And Speeches Quotes
Nothing I accept about myself can be used against me to diminish me.
We are all more blind to what we have than to what we have not.
I find I am constantly being encouraged to pluck out some one aspect of myself and present this as the meaningful whole, eclipsing or denying the other parts of self.
We can learn to work and speak when we are afraid in the same way we have learned to work and speak when we are tired.
The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house. They may allow us to temporarily beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change.
If this society ascribes roles to Black men which they are not allowed to fulfill, is it Black women who must bend and alter our lives to compensate, or is it society that needs changing?
What gets me about the United States is that it pretends to be honest and therefore has so little room to move toward hope.
Too often, we pour the energy needed for recognizing and exploring difference into pretending those differences are insurmountable barriers, or that they do not exist at all.
No woman is responsible for altering the psyche of her oppressor, even when that psyche is embodied in another woman.
Oppressed peoples are always being asked to stretch a little more, to bridge the gap between blindness and humanity.