To maintain their power, dominant groups create and maintain a popular system of 'commonsense' ideas that support their right to rule. In the United States, hegemonic ideologies concerning race, class, gender, sexuality, and nation are often so pervasive that it is difficult to conceptualize alternatives to them, let alone ways of resisting the social practices that they justify.

Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (ed. Psychology Press, 2000) - ISBN: 9780415924849