I enjoyed your last two posts, and agree with your overall point. Thanks for taking the time to clarify your position.

Michelle,

I’m not exactly sure how we jumped to “de-legitimizing the poor, white experience.” There’s certainly nothing controversial about anything you’ve said. I think where Kipp and I differ is in perception, and to what extent we feel like there exist spaces to talk about class without everything being subsumed into race. Treating race and class as though they are interchangeable is definitely problematic. I just don’t think that the “alienation” of a white person who felt that a (I assume) non-white speaker spent too much time talking about race, and not class was a good starting point for that discussion. It gives the impression of privileging white comfort over the fact that the speaker may well have felt that race was the more salient concern at play.

Finally, I’m also not quite sure I understand why you find it discouraging when someone’s good intentions are questioned- there’s a great deal of harm in this world done by so-called well-meaning people, and I don't think anyone should have the privilege of an automatic pass when they do or say potentially questionable things simply because they meant well. I think pushing each other to be transparent and honest about why we’ve chosen our positions on these topics goes a long way towards illuminating the discussion for everyone.

-- RumbidzaiMaweni - 08 Apr 2012