Respectable Discrimination: Disciplinary Respectability As Acceptable Prejudice
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RESPECTABLE DISCRIMINATION: DISCIPLINARY RESPECTABILITY AS ACCEPTABLE PREJUDICE Tamar Malloy A dissertation submitted to the faculty as the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Political Science in the College of Arts and Sciences. Chapel Hill 2017 Approved by: Jeff Spinner-Halev Frank Baumgartner Susan Bickford Maxine Eichner Michael Lienesch © 2017 Tamar Malloy ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT Tamar Malloy: Respectable Discrimination: Disciplinary Respectability as Acceptable Prejudice (Under the direction of Jeff Spinner-Halev) Marginalized groups’ adoption of the politics of respectability has been intended as an assertion of humanity, dignity, and a right to self-determination. With disciplinary respectability, dominant groups have flipped that script, using non-compliance with respectability norms as a justification for misrecognition and exclusion. This project explores the ways in which disciplinary respectability is enshrined in laws, institutional policies, and social norms. It argues that excluding expressions of identity from anti-discrimination law, and providing protection only for those aspects of identity that are considered immutable, means that these laws fail to offer meaningful protections. It further contends that disciplinary respectability masks and reproduces prejudice, harms marginalized groups and group members, facilitates ongoing discrimination and inequalities, and conceals systemic oppression. This study proceeds in three parts. First, it explores the ways in which United States antidiscrimination law, most notably Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, permits for respectability-based employment discrimination. It argues that the structure and interpretation of the law—particularly the standards of disparate treatment, disparate impact, bona fide occupational qualifications, community norms, and immutability—allows employers and judges to discriminate on the basis of identity by masking those prejudices in rhetorics of respectability. Second, it explores schools’ use of respectability requirements—policies whose purpose is to iii require compliance with white middle-class behavioral norms of respectability. It argues that these policies teach a narrow concept of respectability, normalize the idea that people who deviate from respectability are deserving of punishment and exclusion, and are counterproductive to a multicultural, democratic state’s interest in developing citizens with an understanding of and ability to navigate difference. Lastly, it turns to the National Basketball Association’s 2005 implementation of a racially coded player dress code. It describes how the NBA drew on rhetorics of respectability to justify the implementation and enforcement of the code, and uses the cases of Allen Iverson, LeBron James, and Russell Westbrook to explore the ways in which individuals navigate respectability requirements in the face of powerful institutional demands. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am deeply grateful for the community that has made this project possible. Jeff Spinner- Halev offered invaluable guidance throughout, and I am especially thankful for his incisive, grounding questions and his support for this topic. Susan Bickford, Michael Lienesch, Frank Baumgartner, and Maxine Eichner provided intellectual support and constructive challenges that strengthened the work at every stage. Funding from the Thomas M. Uhlman Research Fellowship, the Thelma Zaytoun Research Fellowship, and the AAUW’s American Dissertation Fellowship provided essential support for research and writing. Thanks are also due to the family, friends, and colleagues who have aided this work and made the experience of it rich and rewarding. First and foremost, to my mother, Shana Zaslow, and my brother, Malachy Malloy, for their support and confidence, and for being the sort of family that encourages big questions and thoughtful answers. I am also grateful to the friends and colleagues whose insights, questions, encouragement, and good company have helped nourish this project: Santiago Anria, Rebecca Appel, Wendy Carr, Martin Caver, Claire Greenstein, Joey Honeycutt, Rebecca Pierson Honeycutt, Nick Howard, Molly Howard, Sarah Luria, Paula Mukherjee, Emily Roach, Jacob Samuels-Kalow, Casey Stegman, Leandra Trout, Katy Walker, Jen Ingles Wilson, and the family dinner crew. I am thankful twice over for those friends who, in addition to their steadfast support, have read drafts and provided feedback along the way: Amanda Barnes Cook, Erika Huckestein, Sarah Maxey, Danielle Morello, Delphia Shanks- Booth, Carrie Baldwin-SoRelle, and Mallory SoRelle. v TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................................1 Respectability: From Politics to Discipline .................................................................................5 Four Facets of Respectability .......................................................................................................9 Rights and Institutions ...............................................................................................................11 The Disciplinary Power of Respectability .................................................................................13 CHAPTER 1. RESPECTABILITY AT WORK: THE LIMITS OF ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW ...................................................................16 The Legality of Discrimination: Key Aspects of Title VII ........................................................25 Disparate Treatment ...........................................................................................................27 Disparate Impact ................................................................................................................31 Bona Fide Occupational Qualifications .............................................................................33 Community Norms ............................................................................................................36 Undue Burdens: Mechanisms of Respectability ........................................................................43 Reliance on Immutability ...................................................................................................44 Group Identities, Individual Judgments .............................................................................50 Gatekeeping .......................................................................................................................56 Conclusion: Possibilities For and Beyond the Law ...................................................................60 Appearance Protections .....................................................................................................62 Privacy and Autonomy ......................................................................................................64 Shifting Burdens ................................................................................................................65 vi Beyond the Law .................................................................................................................67 CHAPTER 2. THE THREE R’S: RESPECTABILITY, RECOGNITION, AND RIGHTS ..........................................................................70 Rights and Protections ...............................................................................................................76 Becoming at School ...................................................................................................................80 Disciplining Identities ................................................................................................................81 What do respectability requirements do? ...........................................................................82 What purposes do they serve? ............................................................................................86 Who should shoulder costs? ...............................................................................................88 How does the role of the state matter? ...............................................................................91 Conclusion: What Respectability Requirements Teach .............................................................97 CHAPTER 3: DON’T HATE THE PLAYER: RESPECTABILITY AND RESISTANCE IN THE NBA ....................................................................100 Permissible by, and on, the Court ............................................................................................108 More Money, More Power: The NBA as a Disciplinary Power ..............................................111 White Power Brokers: Disciplining and Controlling .......................................................115 White Audiences: Watching and Learning ......................................................................118 Black Audiences: Watched and Controlled .....................................................................121 Free Styling: Black Fashion and Black Agency ......................................................................123 Playing Defense: Three Cases of Resistance ...........................................................................129 “The Game That I Go Out There and Die For”: Allen Iverson and Explicit Resistance .......................................................................................129