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"What rights can individuals claim by virtue of membership of historically oppressed groups? How do these claims conflict with membership of larger communities? In this investigation of the legal and social terrain mapped out by these questions, Martha Minow offers a broader understanding of the legal issues bearing on such incendiary questions as affirmative action, segregation, gay and lesbian rights, racial redistricting and ""identity politics"". It uses incidents to explain the legal concepts behind court decisions. The author's approach recognizes both historic mistreatment of groups and the sometimes conflicting needs of individuals."

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9781565843745

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A moderate, judicious, and ultimately bland look at identity politics. Minow (Law/Harvard) sees the issue of human identity in a pluralistic society as a series of paradoxes. Consider: The struggle to be an individual is apparently universal; it is impossible to have an individual identity in isolation from others; maintaining a tolerant political system requires some intolerance of the intolerant; and the central paradox animating her thoughts on identity, the possibility of forging commitment to others without relinquishing commitment to oneself. She examines the general nature of identity and membership in a group, the role of law in reinforcing group identities, the dilemma of redressing wrongs against groups without sacrificing the individual, the special problems of who should control school curricula and the place of education in establishing identities, and the supposed dangers of political fragmentation along identity lines. The effort throughout to couch the discussion in terms of paradoxes is intriguing and especially illuminating in regard to the legal system (for instance, she notes that even the need to enforce equal opportunity laws requires that people be viewed as members of particular groups), but the indeterminacy is frustrating. True to form, Minow's closing suggestions for moving society in a positive direction are linked, but contrasting responses. Each embraces a but also that transforms the analytical paradoxes into paradoxical recommendations for action, e.g., permit parents to select schools and thus student peers for their children, but also subject those choices to constraints and incentives to promote exposure to diverse others, not selected by the parents. Although Minow believes that embracing the paradoxes of human identity will minimize fruitless exchanges between antagonists committed to opposing ideals, there is reason to wonder whether the potential for conflict has really been altered. A fine mind is at work here, but splitting hairs may not suffice in resolving these issues. (Kirkus Reviews)

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