Essentialist assertions of authority come chiefly from dominant, not marginalized, groups.

Evidence

In her narrative it is always a marginal “o the r” who is essentialist. Yet the politics of essentialist exclusion as a means of asserting presence, identity, is a cultural practice that does not emerge solely from marginalized groups. And when those groups do employ essentialism as a way to dominate in institutional settings, they are often imitating paradigms for asserting subjectivity that are part of the controlling apparatus in structures of domination. Certainly many white male students have brought to my classroom an insistence on the authority of experience, one that enables them to feel that anything they have to say is worth hearing, that indeed their ideas and experience should be the central focus of classroom discussion. — bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress, 167

Categorization

• XREF: Reverses Fuss’s framing and connects to earlier hook claim that classroom neutrality masks dominance; also connects to the book chapter’s thread on authority of experience. — connects to: Critiques of essentialism that target only the marginalized reinforce existing domination.; Essentialist notions of group difference get appropriated by elites to sustain domination. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 291; Dominant groups defend privilege through bounded ideological justifications (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Essentialist notions of group difference get appropriated by elites to sustain domination. #exemplifies (0.85) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 291
• Dominant groups defend privilege through bounded ideological justifications #corroborates (0.80)
• Dominant groups frame subordinate demands as illegitimate through principled defenses #exemplifies (0.80)
• Dominants are driven by desire to control, not hostility toward subordinates #exemplifies (0.75) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 681