Publications
Malloy, Tamar "Reconceiving Recognition: Towards a Cumulative Politics of Recognition.” The Journal of Political Philosophy, Vol. 22, No. 4 (Dec. 2014) 416-437.
Book Manuscript
Respectable Prejudices: Discrimination through Disciplinary Respectability
Marginalized groups’ adoption of the politics of respectability has long been intended as an assertion of humanity, dignity, and self-determination. With disciplinary respectability, dominant groups have flipped that script, using non-compliance with respectability norms as a justification for misrecognition and marginalization. This project develops a definition of disciplinary respectability and uses three case studies to illustrate the ways in which disciplinary respectability is enshrined in U.S. laws, institutional policies, and social norms. First, U.S. anti-discrimination lawsuits demonstrate how rhetorics of respectability, which emphasize ostensibly neutral terms like “professionalism,” circumvent existing identity-based legal protections by refocusing discrimination from legally protected identity categories to unprotected identity-related characteristics like hair and dress. Second, schools’ enforcement of respectability requirements, which require the performance of respectability without underlying health and safety purposes, normalize the punishment of those who do not “correctly” perform respectability and teach children, as future citizens, that differences in affect, comportment, speech, and dress are a just basis for surveillance, discipline, and exclusion. Third, the National Basketball Association’s implementation of a racially coded player dress code reveals the power dynamics behind respectability demands, while players’ responses to the code give insight into how individuals navigate respectability demands in the face of powerful institutional constraints. Through these cases, the project contends that disciplinary respectability masks and reproduces prejudice, harms marginalized groups and group members, and forecloses possibilities for mutual recognition and equal democratic participation.
Marginalized groups’ adoption of the politics of respectability has long been intended as an assertion of humanity, dignity, and self-determination. With disciplinary respectability, dominant groups have flipped that script, using non-compliance with respectability norms as a justification for misrecognition and marginalization. This project develops a definition of disciplinary respectability and uses three case studies to illustrate the ways in which disciplinary respectability is enshrined in U.S. laws, institutional policies, and social norms. First, U.S. anti-discrimination lawsuits demonstrate how rhetorics of respectability, which emphasize ostensibly neutral terms like “professionalism,” circumvent existing identity-based legal protections by refocusing discrimination from legally protected identity categories to unprotected identity-related characteristics like hair and dress. Second, schools’ enforcement of respectability requirements, which require the performance of respectability without underlying health and safety purposes, normalize the punishment of those who do not “correctly” perform respectability and teach children, as future citizens, that differences in affect, comportment, speech, and dress are a just basis for surveillance, discipline, and exclusion. Third, the National Basketball Association’s implementation of a racially coded player dress code reveals the power dynamics behind respectability demands, while players’ responses to the code give insight into how individuals navigate respectability demands in the face of powerful institutional constraints. Through these cases, the project contends that disciplinary respectability masks and reproduces prejudice, harms marginalized groups and group members, and forecloses possibilities for mutual recognition and equal democratic participation.