Giving Voice The Ambivalent Roles of Specific Intellectuals in Immigrant and LGBT Movements

Intellectuals are central players in all social movement and movement organizations, broadly conceived as people specialized in discourse production as a result of their education and experience. They often take up leading roles within organizations, setting up decision-making procedures, negotiating with authorities, writing legal proposals, and communicating with the media. The fact that intellectuals are better than others in producing (legitimate, convincing, enticing, coherent) discourses creates certain dilemmas. On the one hand, it is good for the movement as a whole if intellectuals use their wit and knowledge to the fullest, effectively appealing to the public and pushing forward the movement's ideas. On the other hand, such wielding of power may marginalize others within movements. They may simply not be represented and there may even be cases where the discourses espoused by intellectuals delegitimize and marginalize weaker groups within the movement. Intellectuals who represent the movement thus contribute to the movement's strength but may – wittingly or unwittingly – repress images and ideas not fitting their representations. The risk that marginalization by intellectuals happens is probably higher when the people they represent have scarce cultural and symbolic resources (as in the case of movements for undocumented immigrants) than when they have substantial resources (as in the case for movements for LGBT people). Still, the power to represent the movement and what it stands for is an issue to some degree in all movements. In short, intellectuals can be a force for the movement but may also exercise power over others within the movement. The resulting Power of Representation dilemma – intellectuals have superior skills of representation but if they use them for the movement, they marginalize others within the movement – has been a topic of heated debate within many movements. Prominent movement intellectuals have suggested different ways of resolving the dilemma both in theory and in practice.