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jingle

Day 2 Response:
Can the Master’s Tools Dismantle?

My immediate answer is no, but I don’t think that means we shouldn’t try to make those tools work toward dismantling systems of oppression and building the groundwork for a liberated future. Audre Lorde saying that the master’s tools won’t dismantle the master’s house also points to something besides the physical structure that is holding up the master’s house. The dominant culture also maintains the master’s house. Lorde and other Black women radicals are only acceptable in certain rooms of the conference, so academics can say they’re “challenging the status quo” but not actually have to confront Lorde’s demands in their own work. The chapter “Electronic Civil Disobedience” also connects this dominant culture to protest and disruption. The dominant culture only uplifts forms of protest that are familiar and acceptable to the state. If we don’t innovate or insist on alternatives, nothing will change. Xenofeminism gives us guidelines for how to think outside of norms and disrupt systems while living inside them.