Andrew Milner, in his book Contemporary Cultural Theory (2002) argues:

“A democratic common culture cannot be made from within the intellectual class itself, but only from within those exploited and oppressed classes and groups the cultural lives of which have proved, by turn, the objects of realist neglect, modernist disdain and postmodernist pastiche.”

He maintains that to be truly democratic in matters like representation, we cannot rely only on the intellectual class. Narratives and arguments from exploited and oppressed classes bring in a sense of authenticity. Milner feels that authenticity comes only through one who has been through the structures and realities of domination and oppression.

An important point that Milner further makes is that that we cannot say that those who have been through oppression and domination are the ones who are always going to have a balanced view. There is also a danger of counter assertion and counter representation. This renders ‘authenticity' problematic:

“That move is precluded by the logic of post-structuralism , however, for if whiteness and blackness are each constituted within and through discourse, then there can be no extra-discursively “real” black or post-colonial identity, to which a multi-cultural or post-colonial cultural politics might appeal for validation.”

The narratives of ‘authentic' black or ‘authentic' feminism or of ‘counter' sexualities, are also available to us in and through language. The richness of Cultural Studies lies in that even if we understand the fact that things are given to us by language and language is a mediating factor, we need to still formulate cultural policies. Cultural realities are largely available to us through discourse, yet a pragmatic line has to be taken by both academicians and cultural workers.