Diversity and Discrimination in our Midst: Musings on Constitutional Schizophrenia, Cultural Conflict, and 'Interculturalism' at the Threshold of a New Century

Authors

Francisco Valdes, California Western School of Law

First Page

293

Document Type

Article

Abstract

This essay argues that the 1990s pose a postponed but inescapable challenge: the fulfillment of the nation's historic commitment to liberty/ equality ideals for all Americans, regardless of race/ethnicity, sex/gender, economic class or sexuality/sexual orientation. In pursuing this argument, this essay traces the historical and jurisprudential continuities regarding (non)liberty/(in)equality that has plagued the American constitutional order from inception to the present, and then focuses on current controversies. Part I sketches a brief history of the liberty/ equality and non-liberty/inequality cross-traditions embedded into American law and society at the nation's genesis in order to show how the cross-traditions work at cross-purposes to frustrate the liberty/ equality quest for traditionally subordinated groups. Part II surveys the analytical and jurisprudential techniques that underlie and help to shape analyses of (non)liberty and (in)equality regarding race/ethnicity, sex/gender, economic/class status, and sexuality/sexual orientation in order to illustrate how jurisprudential techniques have biased tendencies and thus tend to yield predictable results. Part III focuses on some of the key issues concerning perceptions of differentiation, discrimination, and "preference" that fuel the contemporary tempest regarding (non)liberty and (in)equal ity in American law and society in order to bring the historical discussion into the present. Part IV discusses some past and future lessons to be drawn from our historic and current experience, and advances a call for a sensibility of Interculturalism to help us bridge old, yet current, divides. Part V closes with some final musings on diversity and discrimination still in our midst, and urges a bottom-line recognition that we must all, as a nation, learn to live and prosper together, if nothing else, this recognition should commit us to living in harmony, in liberty, and in equality.

Recommended Citation

Francisco Valdes, Diversity and Discrimination in our Midst: Musings on Constitutional Schizophrenia, Cultural Conflict, and 'Interculturalism' at the Threshold of a New Century, 5 St. Thomas L. Rev. 293 (1993).
Available at: https://scholarship.stu.edu/stlr/vol5/iss2/2