And We Are Not Saved: The Opposition To ENDA From The Left Is Mistaken
Filed by: Dr. Jillian T. Weiss
June 18, 2009 7:00 PM
http://www.bilerico.com/2009/06/and_we_are_not_saved.php (http://www.bilerico.com/2009/06/and_we_are_not_saved.php)
The more I read the position of those who oppose ENDA on the grounds that it does not fully protect us, the more I am reminded that my field of professorship is Law AND Society. Too many people see law as a savior. It is not. Law will not save us from discrimination. We cannot legislate against prejudice. Rather, law is nothing more than a tool of education, with the power of the state occasionally behind it.
As an Associate Professor of Law and Society at Ramapo College, I have spent a lot of time reading and teaching about what law can do, and where it fails. Law will not save us. Words on a piece of paper in Congress or in the State House do not change the reality of prejudice and institutional discrimination.
ENDA is not perfect. But it is going to be very, very useful. "Rights talk" -- the blather of words that lawyers spout about the rights supposedly granted by law -- is a well-known way of avoiding provision of actual rights on the ground. Yes, we are all guaranteed equal protection before the law by the Constitution of the United States. But where is that elusive equal protection and where has it been since those words were written in the eighteenth century? It shows up occasionally in our courts, and for that half-measure I am half-thankful.
Jillian makes a really good case. Laws themselves never seem to effect the perfection she mentions. If they did I would imagine that no one would die on our highways as the products would all be safe, the drivers would all be safe, and no one would drive under the influence of any drug at all.
But, laws do change some behaviors, certainly some of the more overt ones that lead to wrongful discrimination.
A really good analysis and commentary, Z. Thanks.
Indeed, thank you for posting.
Beyond the direct legal effects, I think civil rights laws serve to shame bigots by institutionalizing societal reprobation of their views, and to permit open acceptance by people who are intimidated by bigots. So just having some law on the books is a huge step forward.
The title (says the writer) is a quotation regarding the feeling of failure in the 1980's after decades of the black civil rights movement. Would you rather be a black American in the 1980's or any decade before then? I think the answer is pretty obvious. All those laws that failed to make African-Americans equal nevertheless made things slowly and incrementally better.