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March 27th 2006 • Printer version
Richard T. Ford on
Racial Culture:
A Critique
What is black culture? Does it have an
essence? What do we lose and gain by assuming that it does, and
by building our laws accordingly?
Richard Thompson Ford, the George Osborne
Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and author of Racial Culture:
A Critique, will discuss his book at a free public lecture at the
University of Oregon as the 2005-2006 Colin Ruagh Thomas OFallon
Lecturer in Law and American Culture.
The lecture, sponsored by the Oregon Humanities Center, will begin at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 11, in Room 175, Knight Law Center, 1515 Agate St., and will be followed by a book signing and sale. Admission is free and open to the public. For more information, or for disability accommodations, contact the Humanities Center at (541) 346-3934 In his lecture, Ford will question the common presumption of
political multiculturalism that social categories such as race,
ethnicity, gender, and sexuality are defined by distinctive cultural
practices.
He argues against law reform proposals that would attempt to
apply civil rights protections to cultural difference, and focuses on
the adverse effects of multicultural rhetoric and multicultural rights
on their supposed beneficiaries.
He makes a bold argument against the
liberal emphasis on diversity which, he says, often results in a
difference discourse that forces minority groups to accept the very
stereotypes they were trying to oppose.
The O'Fallon Lecture was established by a generous gift from Henry and Betsy Mayer, named in memory of their nephew, son of law professor James O'Fallon and his wife, artist Ellen Thomas. |
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