Richards provides a sweeping analysis of the central place of the value of care in the civil rights movement and other progressive political movements in the United States during the last half-century. The book is essential reading for understanding the important, if often overlooked, place of care in American political life, its contribution to a more inclusive democracy, and the fundamental challenge it represents to patriarchy.
Daniel Engster, University of Texas at San Antonio
An illuminating exploration of how patriarchy damages psyches and promotes violence. Looking at the historical record as well as developmental psychology, Richards shows the potential of a feminist ethics of care to support resistance to patriarchy and to foster good relationships. The result is an optimistic view of the progress that is possible.
Virginia Held, City University of New York
Resisting Injustice and the Feminist Ethics of Care in the Age of Obama
David A. J. Richardss Resisting Injustice and The Feminist Ethics of Care in The Age of Obama: Suddenly, All The Truth Was Coming Out builds on his and Carol Gilligans The Deepening Darkness to examine the roots of the resistance movements of the 1960s, the political psychology behind contemporary conservatism, and President Obamas present-day appeal as well as the reasons for the reactionary politics against him.
Richards begins by laying out the basics of the ethics of care and proposing an alternative basis for ethics: relationality, which is based in convergent findings in infant research, neuroscience, and evolutionary psychology. He critically analyzes patriarchal politics and states that they are rooted in a reactionary psychology that attacks human relationality and ethics. From there, the book examines the 1960s resistance movements and argues that they were fundamentally oriented around challenging patriarchy. Richards asserts that the reactionary politics in America from the 1960s to the present are in service of an American patriarchy threatened by the resistance movements ranging from the 1960s civil rights movements to the present gay rights movement. Reactionary politics intend to marginalize and even reverse the ethical achievements accomplished by resistance movements creating, in effect, a system of patriarchy hiding in democracy. Richards consequently argues that Obamas appeal is connected to his challenge to this system of patriarchy and will examine both Obamas appeal and the reactions against him in light of the 2012 presidential election.
This book positions recent American political development in a broad analysis of the role of patriarchy in human oppression throughout history, and argues that a feminist-based ethics of care is necessary to form a more humane and inclusive democratic politics.
David A. J. Richards is Edwin D. Webb Professor of Law at New York University School of Law, where he teaches constitutional law and criminal law and, with Carol Gilligan, a seminar, Resisting Injustice. He is the author of 17 books, including, most recently, Disarming Manhood: The Roots of Ethical Resistance (2005); The Case for Gay Rights: From Bowers to Lawrence and Beyond (2005); Patriarchal Religion, Sexuality, and Gender: A Critique of New Natural Law (with Nicholas Bamforth, 2008); The Deepening Darkness: Patriarchal Resistance and Democracys Future (with Carol Gilligan, 2009); Fundamentalism in American Religion and Law: Obamas Challenge to Patriarchys Threat to Democracy (2010); and The Rise of Gay Rights and the Fall of the British Empire: Liberal Resistance and the Bloomsbury Group (forthcoming, 2013).
Routledge Research in American Politics and Governance
1 Lobbying the New President
Interests in Transition
Heath Brown
2 Religion, Race, and Barack Obamas New Democratic Pluralism
Gastn Espinosa
3 Direct Democracy in the United States
Petitioners as a Reflection of Society
Edited by Shauna Reilly and Ryan M. Yonk
4 American Exceptionalism in the Age of Obama
Stephen Brooks
5 An Empire of Ideals
The Chimeric Imagination of Ronald Reagan
Justin D. Garrison
6 Resisting Injustice and the Feminist Ethics of Care in the Age of Obama
Suddenly, All the Truth Was Coming Out
David A. J. Richards
First published 2013
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The right of David A. J. Richards to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Richards, David A. J.
Resisting injustice and the feminist ethics of care in the age of Obama :
suddenly, all the truth was coming out / David A. J. Richards.
pages cm (Routledge research in American politics and
governance ; 6)
1. Human servicesUnited States. 2. FeminismUnited States.
3. PatriarchyUnited States. 4. Political psychologyUnited States.
5. ConservatismUnited States. 6. Protest movementsUnited States.
I. Title.
HV31.R53 2013
174.93626dc23
2012047793
ISBN: 978-0-415-66229-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-07247-9 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
For Carol Gilligan
They [his parents] always told me that they would try to spare me what they went through; so I told them I wanted to spare my children going through any mobs. If there were mobs for us to face, we should do it right now. And besides, I told them they were contradicting themselves. My mother always brags about how wonderful the farm life was, and my daddy says he thought the city would save him, and it drove him to drink, so its too bad he ever left South Carolina. Suddenly, though, all the truth was coming out.
John Washington
In nature, springthe time of ripeness when hibernation ceases happens only once a year. In the psyche, the potential is always present. The time to act is now.
Carol Gilligan
Contents
Work on this book arose from collaborative work with a remarkable friend, Carol Gilligan, which took the form of an earlier book written with her, namely, The Deepening Darkness: Patriarchy, Resistance, and Democracys Future (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009). Carol and I have co-taught a seminar now called Resisting Injustice for over 10 years at the New York University School of Law, and this book arose from conversations with her, including her reflections on her work in her recent book, Joining the Resistance. Her astonishing intelligence and supportive generosity, as well as her profound insights into human developmental psychology, were indispensable inspirations to the writing of this book, and her comments on drafts of this book were brilliantly illuminating and valuable in helping me shape its argument, in particular, in light of the recent election of Barack Obama. Students in our seminar, Resisting Injustice, in the fall term of 2012, also commented on parts of this manuscript, and I am grateful to them for their helpful suggestions. These include Alexander Ace, Jeanne Barenholtz, Micah Brooks, Renee Brutus, Elizabeth Daniel Vasquez, Christopher Davis, William Fernandez, Michal Flobaum, Elena Fogel, Tristan Freeman, Lauren Groetch, Britton Kovachevich, Christine LaRochelle, Jerilyn Laskie, William Lawrence, Ariel Love, Michael Lucien, Avery McNeil, Lauren Pignataro, Gabriella Ripoli, Nofar Sheffi, Eve Torres, and Paula Vera.