Abstract

Elizabeth Bounds and Tyler Roberts press for the inclusion of critical voices that "hegemonic" discourse seems to exclude, but the polarity is less marked than they suggest. The newly assertive voices of minority communities criticize social practices not from some alien cultural perspective, but in the name of such broadly shared American values as equality, inclusion, and freedom. They not only expose the power relations that determine the distribution of social goods, but they also exemplify the practice of social criticism by which the contours of shared understanding are regularly redefined. However, because the incorporation of local values is not an additive process, the elements that constitute the cultural synthesis can never be expected to achieve equal standing, and the success of the synthesis cannot properly be judged by that standard.