"In our work and in our living, we must recognize that difference is a reason for celebration and growth, rather than a reason for destruction"
About this Quote
Difference isn’t framed here as a hurdle to be tolerated; it’s pitched as an engine. Audre Lorde takes the polite liberal slogan of “diversity” and sharpens it into a demand: if your politics, your workplace, your friendships aren’t changed by difference, you’re not actually engaging it. You’re just decorating power with better language.
The line works because it refuses neutrality. “In our work and in our living” collapses the usual escape hatch that lets institutions talk progressive while private life stays segregated, and vice versa. Lorde’s insistence on “must recognize” is not motivational-poster energy; it’s an ethical ultimatum. Recognition is depicted as a practice with consequences, not an opinion you hold.
The subtext is the part that bites: destruction is not a freak accident that happens when people “don’t get along.” It’s an outcome produced when difference is treated as threat. Lorde is writing from inside multiple, intersecting forms of marginalization (Black, lesbian, feminist, mother, cancer survivor), and her work consistently critiques how even liberation movements replicate hierarchies by demanding sameness as the price of belonging. “Celebration and growth” isn’t naive optimism; it’s strategic. Celebration signals joy as a political resource, while growth implies discomfort, friction, and change - the kinds of change institutions often fear because it redistributes attention, safety, and power.
Contextually, this sits in Lorde’s broader argument (especially in her essays on “the master’s tools”) that difference can’t be managed with token inclusion. It has to be cultivated as a source of new knowledge - or it will be weaponized into yet another excuse for domination.
The line works because it refuses neutrality. “In our work and in our living” collapses the usual escape hatch that lets institutions talk progressive while private life stays segregated, and vice versa. Lorde’s insistence on “must recognize” is not motivational-poster energy; it’s an ethical ultimatum. Recognition is depicted as a practice with consequences, not an opinion you hold.
The subtext is the part that bites: destruction is not a freak accident that happens when people “don’t get along.” It’s an outcome produced when difference is treated as threat. Lorde is writing from inside multiple, intersecting forms of marginalization (Black, lesbian, feminist, mother, cancer survivor), and her work consistently critiques how even liberation movements replicate hierarchies by demanding sameness as the price of belonging. “Celebration and growth” isn’t naive optimism; it’s strategic. Celebration signals joy as a political resource, while growth implies discomfort, friction, and change - the kinds of change institutions often fear because it redistributes attention, safety, and power.
Contextually, this sits in Lorde’s broader argument (especially in her essays on “the master’s tools”) that difference can’t be managed with token inclusion. It has to be cultivated as a source of new knowledge - or it will be weaponized into yet another excuse for domination.
Quote Details
| Topic | Equality |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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