Philosophers as Unreliable Narrators
The notorious distance between many academic writers’ on-the-page personae and their in-person personalities is widely thought to be a good thing. If, in person, many of us are quarrelsome, neurotic, egotistical, oblivious, thin-skinned, competitive, self-aggrandizing, and self-indulgent, yet on the page we appear gentle, thoughtful, courageous, well-informed, and touchingly vulnerable, then at least the research has not been contaminated by the personality. In daily life, we may or may not want to know the person behind the prose as a friend, colleague, boss, neighbor, lover, or presiding judge, but in our studies we expect to hear from a distinctive writing persona, someone calmer, more reliable, more open-minded than most of us ordinarily are. As philosophers, we are supposed to aspire to a higher writing self.
Colormute: Race Talk Dilemmas in an American School
Preface ix Acknowledgments xiii Introduction 1 One WeDon't Belong to Simple Race Groups, but We Do 18 Two Race Doesn't Matter, but It Does 44 Three TheDe-Raced Words We Use When Discussing Plans for Racial Equality Can Actually Keep Us from Discussing Ways to Make Opportunities Racially Equal 74 Four The More Complex Inequality Seems to Get, the More Simplistic Inequality Analysis Seems to Become 109 Five TheQuestions We Ask Most about RaceAretheVery Questions We Most Suppress 147 Six Although Talking in Racial Terms Can Make Race Matter, Not Talking in Racial Terms Can Make Race Matter Too 172 Moving Forward 210 Practically Speaking: Words for Educators in Particular 220 Note 227 Bibliography 251
Canadian feminism and the law : the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund and the pursuit of equality
In Canadian Femi;1ism and the law, 1 historian Sherene Razack 2 probes the perplexing question whether activists can effectively use the law to bring about progressive social change. She does so by reviewing the activities of the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF), a feminist organization founded to influence the legal interpretation of the equality provisions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Razack considers LEAF's work in the context of the contemporary debate about liberal rights theory. By applying insights she derives from radical feminism and from postmodern and race theories, Razack reveals how perilous the legal strategy is for feminists.