Prejudicial Appearances: The Logic of American Antidiscrimination Law

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.