Title VII as a Displacement of Conflict
![handle is hein.journals/tempcr6 and id is 9 raw text is: TITLE VII AS A DISPLACEMENT OF CONFLICT
ELIZABETH CHAMBLISS*
displacement... 7. psychoanal, the transfer of an emotion from its
original focus to another object, person, or situation'
lightning rod... 1. a rodlike conductor installed to divert lightning
away from a structure ... 2. a person or thing that attracts powerful
and esp. negative and hostile feelings, opinions, etc. thereby divert-
ing such feelings from other targets2
INTRODUCTION
Title VII was designed to be implemented insofar as possible through
voluntary compliance and conciliation.'3 This optimistic enforcement
strategy is pursued in practice through the displacement of conflict -
through a series of displacements that facilitate the denial of conflict
altogether.
First comes a push towards informal procedures, and the displacement
of conflict away from the courts (informalization). Then comes strategy of
containment by employers, who institute special procedures internally (inter-
nalization). Finally, if conflict cannot be contained, it is projected onto an
individual scapegoat (personalization). I illustrate this process by focusing on
the role of Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) officers.
EEO officers are specialized employees who administer EEO policies
and grievance procedures at the organization or workplace level.4 EEO of-
* Assistant Professor of Law, University of Texas. J.D. 1988, Ph.D. 1992, University of
Wisconsin-Madison. The author is most grateful to Cathy Kemp, for her faith in this project, and
to Doug Laycock, for his tireless editorial assistance. Special thanks also to Lauren Edelman
and Vicki Schultz, for their thoughtful comments, and to the Institute for Legal Studies at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison, for research support.
1. RANDoM HOUSE DICIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE 568 (2d ed. 1987).
2. Id. at 1113.
3. See Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, § 706, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(b) (1994) (seek-
ing to eliminate unlawful employment practice[s] by informal methods of conference, concilia-
tion, and persuasion.); 29 C.F.R. § 1608.1(b) (1996) ([C]ongress strongly encouraged
employers ... to act on a voluntary basis to modify employment practices... which constituted
barriers to equal employment opportunity ....); Alexander v. Gardner-Denver Co., 415 U.S.
36, 44 (1974) (Congress enacted Title VII ... to assure equality of employment opportunities
.... Cooperation and voluntary compliance were selected as the preferred means for achieving
this goal.); United States v. Allegheny-Ludlum Indus., 517 F.2d 826, 846 (5th Cir. 1975)
([C]onciliation and voluntary settlement are the preferred means for resolving employment
discrimination disputes.).
4. Such employees also may be called by other titles, such as affirmative action officers,
EEO counselors, employee relations directors, and so on. See generally Edelman, Petter-
son, Chambliss and Erlanger, Legal Ambiguity and the Politics of Compliance: Affirmative Ac-
tion Officers' Dilemma, 13 J.L. & POL'Y 73, 76 & 93 n.2 (1991) [hereinafter Politics of](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/tempcr6&div=7&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Title VII as a Displacement of Conflict
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