In Lorde’s image, the house is the structure of power; the tools are the norms, incentives, and gatekeeping mechanisms that built it. When activists accept the master’s metrics—respectability politics, credentialism, extractive funding, or standards of ‘objectivity’ that erase lived experience—they risk securing a room in the house rather than redesigning the blueprint. Lorde’s broader writings, including Uses of the Erotic (1978), insist that alternative ways of knowing and valuing must guide change. Thus, the question becomes not merely who occupies institutional space, but what forms of knowledge, care, and accountability govern that space—and whether those forms can unsettle the foundation rather than decorate the façade. [...]
