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Contestation and Change!

The Language of Public Discourse!LSA 131!

Geoff Nunberg!

July 20, 2009!

http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~nunberg/LSA131/LSA131Contestation7-20.pdf 1

Itinerary: 7/13!

On the notion of "contested concepts"

Contesting "freedom"

The shifting language of race

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"Essentially Contested Concepts"!

What is contested: Concepts or words?

Criteria for ECC: C is appraisive/evaluative ("__ is an oil painting" vs" __ is art")

C is internally complex /describable in various ways (democracy, social justice)

There is substantial and systematic disagreement over the proper use of C, abd everybody acknowledges it

No clearly definable standard or "correct" use

Not simply a matter of applications or contexts

Disputes are "perfectly genuine [and] although not resolvable by argument of any kind, are nevertheless sustained by perfectly respectable arguments and evidence’

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"Essentially Contested Concepts"!

Some proposed ECC's: abortion, rape, personhood, violence, philanthropy, medicine, rhetoric, poverty, love, terrorism, liberalism, neoliberalism…

A counsel of relativism or cynicism? ("we must agree to disagree"?)

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Two Models of Contested Concepts!

Disagreement over projection of criterial features from prototype – begin with clear case (traffic statute as law, Athens as democracy)

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Prototype/!Exemplar

Connections to linguistic semantics!

Model recalls notions of "cluster," "radial" etc. concepts, frames from cognitive lx, cognitive psychology.

Cf meaning of "cup," "furniture," "crawl"

But is this the right story to tell about abstract terms like "freedom," "nation," etc.?

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Two Models of Contested Concepts!

Disagreement instantiation of incomplete/abstract ur-concept

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Core concept

Specific Conceptions

absence of (direct) coercion

absence of impediments

absence of external impediments

"freedom"

Two Models of Contested Concepts!

Disagreement instantiation of incomplete/abstract ur-concept

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Core concept

Specific Conceptions

absence of (direct) coercion

absence of impediments

absence of external impediments

"freedom"

Why do people contest meanings?!

The importance of a common discourse/common language: what would it mean to "win"?

Is "formalism" a contested concept? – and if so, for whom?

Motives for contesting: just to be "correct" vs dominating discourse…

Symbols and contested concepts

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The contested history of “freedom”!

Isaiah Berlin, “Two Concepts of Liberty,” 1958 Liberty as the absence of external obstacles & interference: "negative liberty"

Liberty as control of one’s actions (self-determination, etc.) "positive liberty"

Cf F. D. Roosevelt's "Four Freedoms"

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The modern triumph of "freedom" over "liberty"!

Cf WWI:Liberty bonds, liberty gardens, liberty aircraft engines

"liberty cabbage" vs "freedom fries."

Liberty implies "a network of constraint and order"

Freedom implies broader power and control – more explansive, and hence more useful symbolically

Expansion of "freedom" begins with Roosevelt's "Four Freedoms"

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The modern triumph of "freedom" over "liberty"!

Cf WWI:Liberty bonds, liberty gardens, liberty aircraft engines

"liberty cabbage" vs "freedom fries."

Liberty implies "a network of constraint and order" (Hannah Pitkin)

Freedom implies broader power and control – more explansive, and hence more useful symbolically.

Modern expansion of "freedom" begins with Roosevelt's "Four Freedoms"

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Extensions of freedom !on the left!

FDR extends "freedom" in "Free Europe, "freedom-loving nations," etc. Terms repurposed during Cold War

60's: "Freedom" associated with civil rights movement, "freedom summer, " etc.

"fifth freedom . . . the freedom to expand your own consciousness.'' T. Leary

"reproductive freedom"

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Extensions of Freedom! on the right!

"Free markets" and "free enterprise"

"Freedom of choice" replaces "liberty of contract," "liberty of employers," etc.

The market place is the symbol of economic freedom—where the consumer is free to choose this or that, or nothing at all. The polling booth is the symbol of political freedom—another kind of customer choice. Politi- cal freedom and economic freedom are Siamese twins. They thrive or suffer together.

The term "freedom of choice"… bound in a phrase the consumer benefits of postwar posterity with the political fact of choice in open, relatively contested elections. It did so, however, at the expense of what everyone knew… that private choices of economic opportunity and public choices of policy were not really the same thing. … Daniel T. Rodgers, Contested Truths�

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

Display Ad 8 -- No TitleWall Street Journal (1889-Current file); Aug 6, 1928; ProQuest Historical Newspapers The Wall Street Journal (1889 - 1991)pg. 3

Recent extensions of freedom ! on the right!

Reagan expands "economic freedom" = tax cuts, deregulation, weakening of unions

the polyvalence of "economic freedom"

Opponents of affirmative action invoke "freedom from race."

Government pollution regulations "“force a solution without waiting for the social and psychological change, sacrific- ing cherished traditions of personal freedom for the sake of survival."�

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Is freedom a "contested concept"? !

… or is it simply a general term maximally applied by both sides?

You give me a progressive issue and I'll tell you how it comes down to a matter of freedom" George Lakoff

e.g., "freedom to eat food that is pesticide free, hormone free, antibiotic free, free of genetically modified ingredients, healthy, and uncontaminated,"

Liberals should talk about "freedom judges" – "judicial expansionists who have expanded our freedoms…"

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"

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Reformulating the Language of Race!

Origins of the modern lg of race!

“Color-blind” “Our constitution is color-blind" — John Marshall Harlan in dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896

Picks up after WWII "He didn't win the MVP honor because he is a Negro or in spite of the fact that he is a Negro.. A champion is a champion, and a heel is a heel, and it doesn’t matter if his color is white, black, or chartreuse." NY Times, Arthur Daley on Jackie Robinson, 1949

A cliché of 50's "problem films": "I’m just pro-good doctor—black, white, or polka dot." No Way Out, 1950, Joseph Mankiewicz

Results 1 - 50 of about 235 for "black white or polka-dot".

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The shifting language of prejudice!

"I'm not prejudiced. Mr. Whitaker and I support equal rights for the Negro.'' Far from Heaven, 2002, Todd Haynes; 1950's housewife to her gardener

Why is the line dated?�

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The shifting language of prejudice!

"I'm not prejudiced. Mr. Whitaker and I support equal rights for the Negro.'' Far from Heaven, 2002, Todd Haynes; 1950's housewife to her gardener

The re-redemption of negro:�"Some of us say the Negro has made great progress—which is true—and that he should be satisfied and patient—which is neither true nor realistic." Robert F. Kennedy, Berkeley speech 1966

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The shifting language of prejudice!

"I'm not prejudiced. Mr. Whitaker and I support equal rights for the Negro.'' Far from Heaven, 2002, Todd Haynes; 1950's housewife to her gardener

Conceits of '50s liberalism. "Being prejudiced" as a cognitive disposition, accessible to conscious recognition and correction. (Cf Gordon Allport: Prejudice as "faulty generalization") Prejudice reduces all antipathies to a general pattern

By 1960's, yields to –isms: anti-Semitism (old), racism, sexism, ageism, homophobia Words denote both (unconscious) dispositions and deeds. Cf parallel shift in bias (e.g., "housing bias") �… but some retain old sense of prejudice in racism.

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The Lg of resistence to civil rights!

Evocations of "culture" and "rights" "The reluctance of Southerners to end segregation… is not a matter of prejudice about race itself. Rather it is a concern over a conflict of cultures, and an honest conviction on the part of Southerners that their children will be injured in many areas by submergence in a culture that has not had time fully to mature." Wall St Journal, responding to Brown v. Board of Ed, 1954

“[t]he Negro has come remarkably far, [but] discrimination not just a question of skin color . . . It is a reflection of clashing cultures…sometimes the groups against which discrimination is directed themselves intensify it." WSJ 1960

Civil Rights Act of 1964 opposed in name of property rights, freedom of association. (Reagan: "A bad piece of legislation")

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Appropriating the Lg of civil rights!

1969: WSJ uses "color-blind" for the first time, in editorial opposing desegration efforts in Richmond VA schools. Phrase used 60+ times since then.

Quotas are "at variance to the American tradition… that the law will be color-blind." WSJ 72

“Jordan didn’t look for the nearest black face. He looked for the nearest Chicago jersey. That happened to be Steve Kerr, who is white. This is the example for society to follow—a group of individuals so focused on a common goal of winning that they don’t have to worry about what color the other guy is." Newt Gingrich on Chicago Bulls NBA victory, 1997

Which color are we supposed to be unable to see?

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Appropriating the Lg of civil rights!

Liberalism off the rails: "After the Civil Rights Act of 1964, civil rightists made rapid progress toward equality under the law. It was only in the 1970s that the new goal, 'affirmative action,' was introduced, putting the movement behind a new form of discrimination, racial quotas. . ." WSJ 1985

"There are some today who, in the name of equality, would have us practice discrimination. They've turned our civil rights laws on their head. . . ." Ronald Reagan, 1985

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Symmetrizing "racial"!"Imagine a judicial nominee said, 'My experience as a white man makes me better than a Latina woman.' New racism is no better than old racism," Newt Gingrich

“We have one fundamental contention. No state has any authority under the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to use race as a factor in affording educational opportunities among its citizens.” Robert L. Carter arguing for plaintiffs in Brown v. Board of Ed., 1952

"There is no ambiguity in that statement. And it was that position that prevailed in this Court in Brown" Chief Justice John G. Roberts, 2007 in Seattle schools decision

"All that race was used for at that point in time was to deny equal opportunity to black people. It’s to stand that argument on its head to use race the way they use is now." Robert L. Carter, 2007

Eliminating "race consciousness." Cf California "racial privacy initiative," 2003

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Contesting "Diversity"!A diverse student body is a "constitutionally permissible goal for an institution of higher education," because "the nation's future depends upon leaders trained through wide exposure to the ideas and mores of students as diverse as this Nation of many peoples." Lewis Powell, ruling in Bakke, 1978

"Alabama Governor George Wallace’s 1963 declaration, 'I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever' had receded in memory until last November when Mary Sue Coleman, president of the University of Michigan echoed, 'Diversity matters at Michigan. It matters today, and it will matter tomorrow.'” Peter Wood

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Linguistic failures of the cultural left!

The "hearth language" of the academic cultural left:

The experiences of Africans and blacks in Diaspora have tragically been informed by a Eurocentric hegemonic weltanschauung. This has provoked a countervailing racial essentialist ethos contrived to combat the debilitating impact of Eurocentrism. Put differently, racial essentialism has historically served as pedestal for constructing and sustaining binaries of hegemony and counter-hegemony. Tunde Adeleke, Iowa State

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Appropriating victimhood!"people [etc.] of faith" formed on basis of "people of color."

"When people of faith provide social services, we will not discriminate against them." GW Bush 2001

Claiming the legacy of "true" liberalism & Martin Luther King “If you said in 1968 that you should judge people by the con- tent of their character, not the color of their skin, that you should be color-blind, you were a liberal. If you say it now, you are a conservative.” Wm. Bennett

Appropriating the lg of victimhood. "There are two bigotries remaining in American life. One is the bigotry against religious people. The second is the bigotry of some people in the North and Los Angeles and other places toward the South." William Bennett

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How Lg matters!

"affirmative action," "racial preferences"…

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