my keyboard went randomly french on me....

i read most of the stuff that gets mass shared, but i don't usually mass share myself. i think this article articulately expresses some of the things i've been trying to express for a while regarding the issue of privilege. i've argued before that crt is a specific model for a specific circumstance (particularly the legacy of slavery in the american deep south) and that trying to apply it universally is a classic example of bad methodology - it's universalizing the specific, which is a no-no, but is something that happens far too often in the area of social studies. i think this is the most relevant criticism, as it doesn't deny it's particular validity so much as it argues that it needs to be more carefully applied and adjusted to more accurately take specific historical, geographical, cultural and other concerns into consideration.

this, however, is the other thing that bothers me about it.

"Although the confessing of privilege is understood to be an anti-racist practice, it is ultimately a project premised on white supremacy."

it's also a project premised upon patriarchy, heteronormativity and the other things it attempts to act against. in that sense, it tends to actually reinforce all that hierarchy....

i have made most of these points myself over the last few years. i doubt that andrea smith would appreciate me tagging her essay as a summary of what i have said on the topic, but in a sense it, contextually, *is*.

http://andrea366.wordpress.com/2013/08/14/the-problem-with-privilege-by-andrea-smith/