Racial Culture

by Ford, Richard T.

• ISBN13: 9780691128696
• ISBN10: 0691128693
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-07-17
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

What is black culture? Does it have an essence? What do we lose and gain by assuming that it does, and by building our laws accordingly? This bold and provocative book questions a common assumption of political multiculturalism: that social categories such as race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality are defined by distinctive cultural practices.

Author Biography

Richard T. Ford is George E. Osborne Professor of Law at Stanford Law School

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Preamble	1	(3)
Difference Discourse	4	(9)
Political Philosophy	5	(6)
Legal Scholarship	11	(2)
Legalism	13	(1)
Ideology	14	(3)
Lexicon	17	(3)
Overview of the Book	20	(3)
Difference Discourse	23	(36)
A (Abridged) History of Difference	29	(7)
The Production of Group Difference as Common Knowledge	36	(6)
The ``Repressive Hypothesis''	36	(6)
``Diversity'': Difference Discourse as Corrupt Detente	42	(17)
Alan Bakke: Multiculturalist?	44	(15)
Identities as Collective Action	59	(66)
Identity as Social Performance	61	(6)
Free Time	64	(3)
Recognition of Difference as Protective Custody	67	(23)
Rights as Public Policy	68	(2)
Rights-to-Difference Require an Official Account of Group Difference	70	(4)
Difference Discourse as Social Discipline: Delegitimation and Stereotyping	74	(4)
Cultural Reservations	78	(10)
Copyrights-to-Difference: Culture as Property	88	(2)
Identity Consciousness: Less Is More	90	(35)
Group Consciousness without Cultural Romanticism	91	(2)
Culture Distinguished from Status	93	(4)
Against ``Racial Characteristics''	97	(3)
Status and Immutability	100	(16)
Intimacy and Identity	116	(9)
``Cultural Discrimination''	125	(44)
Why ``Cultural Bias'' Is Like Death and Taxes	127	(5)
Background Rules as Cultural Discrimination	127	(3)
The Inevitability of Discriminatory Laws	130	(2)
Everyone Can Make a Difference: Difference Discourse as Cultural Zeitgeist	132	(10)
Difference as an Expensive Taste	139	(3)
Institutional Cultures	142	(6)
Institutions, Culture and Intergroup Conflict	148	(8)
Cosmopolitan Difference	156	(6)
The Cosmopolitan and the Province: An Ideological Reorientation	162	(7)
The Ends of Anti-Discrimination Law	169	(42)
Civil Rights as a Limited Mechanism of Social Justice	170	(2)
Anti-discrimination Law and Joint Costs	172	(7)
Doctrinal Reform	179	(16)
Disparate Treatment	181	(2)
Disparate Impact	183	(12)
Rogers Redux: Toward a Pragmatic Approach to Difference	195	(8)
Alternative Approaches to Group Conflict and Social Injustice	203	(8)
Postscript: Beyond Difference	211	(4)
Notes	215	(12)
Index	227