Last semester, I read "Black Feminist Thought" by Patricia Hill Collins, and she addresses a lot of issues that we spoke about in class, especially in the chapter "Black Feminist Epistemology". She outlines two political criteria that influence knowledge validation processes:
1. Knowledge claims are evaluated by people who typically come from a heterosexual elite white male perspective.
2. Scholarly communities cannot stray from beliefs held in US culture without losing credibility.
So, because knowledge claims are influenced by our political environment, people in marginalized groups (such as Black women) may not trust them. In our reading for this week, the author claims that Black students may favor intuitive ways of learning. Collins says in her book "Knowledge without wisdom is adequate for the powerful, but wisdom is essential to the survival of the subordinate." Because subordinate groups have learned to distrust "knowledge", they may rely on intuition and lived experience for information. Collins also states that Black people develop knowledge through a dialogue with other community members, they expect people to be accountable for their knowledge claims, and they consider it essential for individuals to have definite opinions on issues. These are some more examples of how Black students may approach learning differently.
Question: Why do we favor logic, reasoning, and objectivity over intuition and lived experience?
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