Equality Rights and Stereotypes
Files
Description
This chapter critically assesses the idea that what makes discrimination wrong or unfair is the presence of tacit stereotypes or generalizations about the traits that members of a certain group are alleged to have by virtue of their membership in that group. This conception of discrimination as a form of stereotyping may seem to explain why we need to give special constitutional protection to equality rights. The author argues, however, that it is the harmful effects that particular stereotypes (involving traits such as race, sex, and religion) have on members of these groups that are central to whether a law is unfairly discriminatory. She suggests that we need to think further about whether equality rights are best understood as protecting us against just one of these effects, or a combination of them.
Source Publication
Philosophical Foundations of Constitutional Law
Source Editors/Authors
David Dyzenhaus, Malcolm Thorburn
Publication Date
2016
Recommended Citation
Moreau, Sophia, "Equality Rights and Stereotypes" (2016). Faculty Chapters. 1098.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/1098
