I was just reading Nicholas Kristof's article
that claims 21st century social entrepreneurs are going to save the world.

Thinking about New Orleans, I wish I felt more positively about the idea that the ideas of my peers were going to help change the world. I also desperately want to shed my cynicism that has developed out of a growth of awareness of my privelege and the lack of need for housing and other social services. I can criticize Make it Right for not building practical houses, or not listening to Lower 9 residents enough, but I'm not the one whose once-busy streets are now ovegrown green space. re: I don't need the houses, so I am in a place to sit and criticize those who are doing the work and those who will benefit from it.

But I also am frustrated with young priveleged college graduates who start programs that seek to work with our failing criminal justice system, or who think creating a social network will eliminate racism. And then there is me. I moved down here because I could think of nowhere else I'd rather be. I felt guilty about taking an apartment and a job--but I moved here any way. Here is what I told myself: there is a logical limit to accountability. If I move to New Orleans, and get a job, but continue to work in the recovery, and for social justice, doesn't that mean I am giving more than I am taking? Or at least doesn't it mean that I am breaking even? I'd like to think so, but in reality I don't have the knowledge or experience to be more than just another warm body in any social justice campaign.

And to be sure, I've found myself working with more social entrepreneurs than people working for social justice. That's been my biggest hurdle. The nonprofit I work for loves working with other social entrepreneurs. My manager agrees with Kristof--these one-man-and-a-dream nonprofits will change the world through their business-modes and triple-bottom-line social reforms. Now that I'm working in the nonprofit sphere--one where individual social entrepreneurs will save us and the grassroots are idealists because really, hasn't democracy failed, at least a little?--I'm struggling with my sense of self and my ability to stand by what I really believe in. If one person who has no home and trouble with the criminal justice system wants to work with Make it Right, wants to work within the system of DAs, can I really stick to my guns and tell them that I don't believe in what these groups are doing? Or at least, the way they are doing it?

My beliefs in epistemological privilege and the value of experiential knowledge are making it difficult for me to articulate myself and impossible for me to debate. An example: I don't know enough to tell someone who used to live in public housing and wants them torn down that I would like to save New Orleans public housing from demolition until the city and the residents come to an agreement. If you stand by these residents, those people over there get upset, but they never asked you to stand with them. At some point, I have to make a decision about what I think is the most just position. The question is, where do I get the knowledge to make that decision considering I have no experiences that will inform it?