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83 Calif. L. Rev. 853 (1995)
Is the Radical Critique of Merit Anti-Semitic

handle is hein.journals/calr83 and id is 867 raw text is: Is the Radical Critique of Merit Anti-Semitic? Daniel A. Farbert Suzanna ShenyT Conventional concepts of merit are under attack by some Critical Legal Scholars, Critical Race Theorists, and radical feminists. These crit- ics contend that merit is only a social construct designed to maintain the power of dominant groups. This Article challenges the reductionist view that merit has no meaning except as a tool for those in power to perpetuate the existing social order. The authors observe that certain traditionally oppressed groups, most notably Jews and Asian Americans, are dispropor- tionately represented in some desirable economic and educational posi- tions. They have in that sense succeeded beyond the supposedly dominant majority. The economic and educational accomplishments of these groups are hard to reconcile with the notion that merit exists solely to perpetuate the power of the dominant majority (white Gentiles). Because the radical critique of merit denies that the accomplishments of these minority groups can be explained by genuine merit, it necessarily implies that these groups have obtained an unfair proportion of desirable social goods. Therefore, the authors suggest, the radical critique of merit has the wholly unintended consequence of being anti-Semitic and possibly racist. The Article concludes that the radical critique equates merit with raw power and approaches moral relativism. The authors call for continued scrutiny and improvement (rather than wholesale repudiation) of current conceptions of merit. The anti-Semite is not too anxious to possess individual merit. Merit has to be sought, just like truth; it is discovered with diffi- culty; one must deserve it. Once acquired, it is perpetually in ques- tion: a false step, an error, and it flies away. Without respite, from the beginning of our lives to the end, we are responsible for what merit we enjoy. Now the anti-Semite flees responsibility as he flees Copyright @ 1995 California Law Review, Inc. t Henry J. Fletcher Professor of Law and Associate Dean of Faculty, University of Minnesota. t Earl R. Larson Professor of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Law, University of Minnesota. We would like to thank Jim Chen, Paul Edelman, Bill Eskridge, Bernard Farber, Dianne Farber, Paul Finkelman, Phil Frickey, Sandy Levinson, Robert Levy, Michael Paulsen, Roger Park, Suzanne Park, Richard Posner, Gerald Torres, and Mark Tushnet for reading and commenting on earlier drafts of this essay, and Kristin Johnson for her research assistance.

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