Outsiders: Why Difference is the Future of Civil Rights
Zachary Kramer
Abstract
What is the future of civil rights? Like a living thing, discrimination evolves, adapting to its time. As discrimination becomes more individualized, as difference becomes more pronounced, we need a civil rights that is attuned to the way identity is performed today. Outsiders: Why Difference Is the Future of Civil Rights is filled with stories that demand attention, stories of people whose search for identity has cast them to the margins. Their stories reveal that we need to refresh our vision of civil rights. Instead of dealing in protected traits, civil rights law should take its cue from r ... More
What is the future of civil rights? Like a living thing, discrimination evolves, adapting to its time. As discrimination becomes more individualized, as difference becomes more pronounced, we need a civil rights that is attuned to the way identity is performed today. Outsiders: Why Difference Is the Future of Civil Rights is filled with stories that demand attention, stories of people whose search for identity has cast them to the margins. Their stories reveal that we need to refresh our vision of civil rights. Instead of dealing in protected traits, civil rights law should take its cue from religious discrimination law. What we need is a right to personality. The critical question driving equality law should be whether there is space to accommodate a person’s identity. Outsiders: Why Difference Is the Future of Civil Rights seeks to change the way we think about identity, equality, and discrimination. It argues that difference, not sameness, should be the cornerstone of civil rights. Mixing doctrine and theory, art, and personal narrative, Outsiders: Why Difference Is the Future of Civil Rights argues for a civil rights for everyone. Being different is universal. We are all outsiders.
Keywords:
equality,
civil rights,
identity,
discrimination,
sexual orientation,
gender identity,
religion,
difference
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2019 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780190682743 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: February 2019 |
DOI:10.1093/oso/9780190682743.001.0001 |
