Prejudicial Appearances: The Logic of American Antidiscrimination Law - Hardcover

Post, Robert C.; Appiah, K. Anthony; Butler, Judith; Grey, Thomas C.; Siegel, Reva B.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0822327023 ISBN 13: 9780822327028

Publisher: Duke University Press, 2002

Synopsis

In Prejudicial Appearances noted legal scholar Robert C. Post argues modern American antidiscrimination law should not be conceived as protecting the transcendental dignity of individual persons but instead as transforming social practices that define and sustain potentially oppressive categories like race or gender. Arguing that the prevailing logic of American antidiscrimination law is misleading, Post lobbies for deploying sociological understandings to reevaluate the antidiscrimination project in ways that would render the law more effective and just. Four distinguished commentators respond to Post's provocative essay. Each adopts a distinctive perspective. K. Anthony Appiah investigates the philosophical logic of stereotyping and of equality. Questioning whether the law ought to endorse any social practices that define persons, Judith Butler explores the tension between sociological and postmodern approaches to antidiscrimination law. Thomas C. Grey examines whether Post's proposal can be reconciled with the values of the rule of law. And Reva B. Siegel applies critical race theory to query whether antidiscrimination law's reshaping of race and gender should best be understood in terms of practices of subordination and stratification. By illuminating the consequential rhetorical maneuvers at the heart of contemporary U.S. antidiscrimination law, Prejudical Appearances forces readers to reappraise the relationship between courts of law and social behavior. As such, it will enrich scholars interested in the relationships between law, rhetoric, postmodernism, race, and gender.

About this title

Review:

"Robert Post has established himself as among the most original thinkers in American constitutional law. Restoring social context to legal formalism, he makes an astute, humane, and compelling case for the central role of the law in shaping the meanings of race and gender."--Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

"Post is one of the most sophisticated members of the legal academy, and, not surprisingly, he offers here an illuminating contrast between certain conventional, 'formal' approaches to analyzing 'discrimination' and a far more contextual, sociologically nuanced understanding of social practices."--Sanford Levinson, author of Processes of Constitutional Decisionmaking: Cases and Materials

Synopsis:

In Prejudicial Appearances noted legal scholar Robert C. Post argues that the true motivation behind anti-discrimination laws should be acknowledged: that they exist not to uphold the inherent dignity of persons but to change society, to make it better and more just. Claiming that the prevailing logic - that of upholding dignity - is misguided, Post lobbies against obscuring the laws' legitimate goals. Each of the four distinguished commentators who respond to Post's evocative essay brings a distinctive perspective to this re-conception. K. Anthony Appiah investigates the logic of stereotyping. Thomas C. Grey examines whether Post's proposal can be reconciled with the values of the rule of law. Questioning whether the law ought to endorse any concept of a social practice that defines persons, Judith Butler explores the tension between post-modern and deconstructive approaches to anti-discrimination. And Reva B. Siegel applies critical race theory to query whether anti-discrimination law's reshaping of race and gender should best be understood in terms of practices of subordination.

By representing the variety of views that have been propagated in attempting to reconceive the thrust of anti-discrimination law, both students and scholars interested in the relationships among law, rhetoric, postmodernism, race, and gender will be enriched by Prejudicial Appearances.

About this edition

• Publisher: Duke University Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0822327023
• ISBN 13: 9780822327028
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 184