[lbo-talk] Check your privilege?

Eric Beck ersatzdog at gmail.com
Sun Sep 1 14:25:12 PDT 2013


Just came across this critique of privilege politics:

http://miamiautonomyandsolidarity.wordpress.com/2013/08/31/the-problem-with-privilege/

"The politics of privilege have made the important contribution of signaling how the structures of oppression constitute who we are as persons. However, as the rituals of confessing privilege have evolved, they have shifted our focus from building social movements for global transformation to individual self-improvement. Furthermore, they rest on a white supremacist/colonialist notion of a subject that can constitute itself over and against others through self-reflexivity. While trying to keep the key insight made in activist/academic circles that personal and social transformation are interconnected, alternative projects have developed that focus less on privilege and more the structures that create privilege. These new models do not hold the “answer,” because the genealogy of the politics of privilege also demonstrates that our activist/intellectual projects of liberation must be constantly changing."



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