Dissolving the Sameness/Difference Debate: A Post-Modern Path Beyond Essentialism in Feminist and Critical Race Theory

This article provides a theoretical approach to move beyond the sameness/difference debate that plagues human rights discourse. The author begins by describing and critiquing both the sameness and the difference approaches because they veil the structural disadvantages of "outsiders," and thus reinforce the status quo. The author provides a post-modern reformulation of sameness and difference, which recognizes that each person is "embedded in a matrix of social and psychological factors that interact in different contexts." The author concludes that this post-modern approach dissolves the dichotomy between sameness and difference by considering how race, sex, and class interact to inform one's experience.