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44 Stan. L. Rev. 1 (1991-1992)
A Critique of Our Constitution is Color-Blind

handle is hein.journals/stflr44 and id is 17 raw text is: A Critique of Our Constitution is Color-Blind Nefl Gotanda* I. INTRODUCTION ........................................... 2 II. COLOR-BLIND CONSTITUTIONALISM AND THE PUBLIC- PRIVATE DISTINCTION .................................... 7 A. The Private Right to Discriminate ..................... 8 B. The Normative Content of the Public-Private Distinction. 12 1. Public and private relations ........................ 13 2. Public and private actors .......................... 14 III. NONRECOGNITION ........................................ 16 A. Nonrecognition as Technique .......................... 16 B. Self-Contradiction and Repression ...................... 17 1. The impossibility of private sphere nonrecognition .... 18 2. The incoherence of discounting racialness......... 21 3. Repression and denial of racial subordination ....... 21 IV. RACIAL CATEGORIES ..................................... 23 A. American Racial Classification: Hypodescent ........... 23 1. The rule of hypodescent ........................... 24 2. Alternatives to hypodescent..................... 25 3. Support for racial subordination .................... 26 B. Assertion of Racial Subordination ...................... 26 1. Equality and the social metaphor of racial purity .... 26 2. Subordination in recognition ....................... 27 C. Disguising the Mutability of Racial Categorization ...... 28 1. The scientific legitimation of race .................. 28 2. The tradition of physiognomy ...................... 30 * © 1991 by Neil Gotanda. Associate Professor of Law, Western State University College of Law, Fullerton. B.S., 1967, Stanford; J.D., 1972, Boalt Hall; LL.M., 1980, Harvard. Versions of this article have been circulating for so long, I am sure that I have missed important contributions. I owe special thanks to three people: Harry Chang, with whom I first studied the question of race; Duncan Kennedy, who has kept faith with the critical project; and Kimberl6 Crenshaw, organizer of the Workshop on Critical Race Theory, whose support and friendship prevented this article from being abandoned. Thanks also to Alex Aleinikoff, Anita Allen, Linz Audain, Regina Austin, Derrick Bell, Todd Brower, John Calmore, Denise Carty-Bennia, Richard Delgado, Constance DeMartino, Pat Ellerd, Mary Joe Frug, Philip Gotanda, Linda Greene, Angela Harris, JoLani Hironaka, Morton Horwitz, Lillie Hsu, Lisa Ikemoto, Susan Keller, Charles Lawrence, Bruce Ledewitz, Chris Lit- tleton, Mari Matsuda, Phil Merkel, Martha Minow, Phil Nash, John Noyes, Fran Olsen, Yasuaki Onuma, Gary Peller, Steve Perkins, Stephanie Phillips, Judy Scales-Trent, Joseph Singer, Ralph Smith, Patricia Sumi, Robert D. Taylor, Kendall Thomas, Gerald Torres, David Trubeck, Mark Tushnet, Patricia Williams, and my editors at the Stanford Law Review.

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