Is Racial Equality Unconstitutional?

Erscheinungsjahr 2019
ISBN: 978-0-19-009008-1
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 232 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 361 g

More than just a legal doctrine, color-blind constitutionalism has emerged as the defining metaphor of the post-Civil Rights era. Even for those challenging its constitutional authority, the language of color-blindness sets the terms of debate. Critics of color-blind constitutionalism are in this sense captured by the object of their critique. And yet, paradoxically, to enact a color-blind rule actually requires a heightened awareness of race. As such, color-blind constitutionalism represents a particular form of racial consciousness rather than an alternative to it.

Challenging familiar understandings of race, rights, and American law, Is Racial Equality Unconstitutional? explores how current equal protection law renders the pursuit of racial equality constitutionally suspect. Identifying hierarchy rather than equality as an enduring constitutional norm, the book demonstrates how the pursuit of racial equality, historically, has been viewed as a violation of white rights. Arguing against conservative and liberal redemption narratives, both of which imagine racial equality as the perfection of American democracy, Is Racial Equality Unconstitutional? calls instead for a break from the current constitutional order, that it may be re-founded upon principles of racial democracy.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Golub, Mark

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Volkskunde Minderheiten, Interkulturelle & Multikulturelle Fragen
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Kultur Menschenrechte, Bürgerrechte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie
• Rechtswissenschaften Öffentliches Recht
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Soziologie von Migranten und Minderheiten

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- Preface

- Acknowledgements

- Part I: The Race-Conscious Logic of Color-Blind Constitutionalism

- Chapter 1: Beyond Color-Blindness and Color-Consciousness

- Chapter 2: Constitutive Racism, Redemptive Constitutionalism

- Part II: Color-Blindness Against the Color-Line

- Chapter 3: The Lessons of Plessy

- Chapter 4: The Limits of Brown

- Part III: Color-Blindness After the Color-Line

- Chapter 5: Defending White Rights

- Chapter 6: Is Racial Equality Unconstitutional?

- Notes

- Bibliography

- Index

Über Autor(innen)

Mark Golub is Associate Professor of Politics and Director of the Legal Studies Program at Scripps College, Claremont, CA. He specializes in critical race theory, constitutional law, and African American political thought. His work focuses on the limits of official anti-racist discourse and the legal construction of racial entitlement.