Description
Class and race are often assumed to be natural, biologically determined categories when in fact they are social constructs. Together with gender, these distinctions are perpetuated and exploited by the most powerful social group -- white male elites -- to maintain their privilege. Christian ethicist Mary Elizabeth Hobgood addresses these dynamics not only because they are unjust, but because they create isolation and spiritual impoverishment and promote cultural values that do harm to everyone irrespective of class, race, or gender. In "Dismantling Privilege" she identifies an ethical agenda for elites and seeks to persuade them that an agenda of justice and an ethics of accountability will be of primary benefit to them. The solution, Hobgood asserts, is a politics of solidarity grounded in the realization that no one is free until all are free.
