The Privilege of Ignorance

Sor Juana's position as a educated woman in colonial Mexico granted her certain privileges while denying her others. She used her awareness of structural injustice as motivation for her work. This concept examines the privilege embedded in unconscious consumption. Those with sufficient wealth can afford not to ask where products come from, not to research labor conditions, not to investigate environmental impact. Those harmed by extraction—exploited workers, displaced communities, poisoned ecosystems—have no such luxury of ignorance. Ethical consumption requires acknowledging this privilege and actively dismantling the comfort it provides. Sor Juana's intellectual honesty demands we examine our own complicity rather than maintaining convenient ignorance. This is difficult work: it means admitting we benefit from systems we oppose, that our comfort is purchased through others' suffering. But this recognition is necessary. Ethical consumption becomes an act of epistemic justice—intentionally learning what we've been allowed to ignore, taking responsibility for knowledge we could have possessed all along.