Title

Reclaiming Equality: How Regressive Laws Can Advance Progressive Ends

Authors

Jonathan Feingold, Boston University School of LawFollow

Author granted license

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Spring 2022

ISSN

0038-3104

Publisher

University of South Carolina School of Law

Language

en-US

Abstract

Since the fall of 2020, right-wing forces have targeted Critical Race Theory ("CR T') through a sustained disinformation campaign. This offensive has deployed anti-CRT rhetoric to justify a host of "Backlash Bills" designed to chill conversations about race and racism in the classroom. Concerned stakeholders have assailed these laws as morally bankrupt and legally suspect. These responses are natural and appropriate. But challenging a bill's moral or legal mooring is insufficient to counter a primary purpose of this legislative onslaught: to further erode, within our public discourse and collective consciousness, the ability to distinguish between racism and antiracism. To meet this threat, advocates should reappropriate these regressive laws, and the language of equality they harness, for progressive ends. More concretely, stakeholders should wield Backlash Bills to defend CRT in schools. Albeit counterintuitive, many "anti-CRT" laws if we take seriously their text support this rhetorical and legal turn.

Comments

Updated with published article titled "Reclaiming Equality: How Regressive Laws Can Advance Progressive Ends" on 9/30/22

Working paper titled "Reclaiming CRT: How Regressive Laws Can Advance Progressive Ends" is available on SSRN

Recommended Citation

Jonathan Feingold, Reclaiming Equality: How Regressive Laws Can Advance Progressive Ends , in 73 South Carolina Law Review 723 (2022).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/1833