“Differences in power constrain our ability to connect with one another even when we think we are engaged in dialogue across differences.” In this popularized form, standpoint theory goes far beyond an exhortation to ensure that people from different backgrounds are involved in scientific research or political decision-making; it stipulates that there are some important insights that members of one group will never be able to communicate to outsiders. Over time, this thought has increasingly been translated into the even simpler form in which it is now often repeated in activist spaces. In
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