Description
Book SynopsisUnlike criticisms of multiculturalism, which worry about 'reverse discrimination' or the erosion of core Western cultural values, this book's focuses on the effects of multicultural rhetoric and multicultural rights on their beneficiaries. It argues that multicultural accounts of cultural difference do not describe the practices of social groups.
Trade Review"Ford is deliberately provocative and his arguments are ingenious, often funny and sometimes remarkably personal."--The New Yorker "A serious work of legal scholarship about race that's innovative, bracing and funny? Stanford law professor Ford pulls it off in a surprising, rigorous volume that should send academics, legal professionals, civil rights activists and others dedicated to social justice racing for both sides of the barricades... Agree with it or not, this book is an invigorating pleasure for thoughtful readers."--Publishers Weekly "Ford provides an alternative 'practice-based' definition of culture based on hybrid and emergent cultural traits, and offers ways in which antidiscrimination arguments can avoid the pitfalls of essentialism and ascribed social categories."--Choice
Table of ContentsPreface vii PREAMBLE 1 Difference Discourse 4 Political Philosophy 5 Legal Scholarship 11 Legalism 13 Ideology 14 Lexicon 17 Overview of the Book 20 CHAPTER 1. DIFFERENCE DISCOURSE 23 A (Abridged) History of Difference 29 The Production of Group Difference as Common Knowledge 36 The "Repressive Hypothesis" 36 "Diversity": Difference Discourse as Corrupt Detente 42 Alan Bakke: Multiculturalist? 44 CHAPTER 2. IDENTITIES AS COLLECTIVE ACTION 59 Identity as Social Performance 61 Free Time 64 Recognition of Difference as Protective Custody 67 Rights as Public Policy 68 Rights-to-Difference Require an Official Account of Group Difference 70 Difference Discourse as Social Discipline: Delegitimation and Stereotyping 74 Cultural Reservations 78 Copyrights-to-Difference: Culture as Property 88 Identity Consciousness: Less Is More 90 Group Consciousness without Cultural Romanticism 91 Culture Distinguished from Status 93 Against "Racial Characteristics" 97 Status and Immutability 100 Intimacy and Identity 116 CHAPTER 3. "CULTURAL DISCRIMINATION" 125 Why "Cultural Bias" Is Like Death and Taxes 127 Background Rules as Cultural Discrimination 127 The Inevitability of Discriminatory Laws 130 Everyone Can Make a Difference: Difference Discourse as Cultural Zeitgeist 132 Difference as an Expensive Taste 139 Institutional Cultures 142 Institutions, Culture and Intergroup Conflict 148 Cosmopolitan Difference 156 The Cosmopolitan and the Province: An Ideological Reorientation 162 CHAPTER 4. THE ENDS OF ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW 169 Civil Rights as a Limited Mechanism of Social Justice 170 Anti-discrimination Law and Joint Costs 172 Doctrinal Reform 179 Disparate Treatment 181 Disparate Impact 183 Rogers Redux: Toward a Pragmatic Approach to Difference 195 Alternative Approaches to Group Conflict and Social Injustice 203 POSTSCRIPT: BEYOND DIFFERENCE 211 Notes 215 Index 227
