Unfair Subordination

Chapter Two, “Unfair Subordination,” develops a theory of unfair subordination and then uses this theory to help explain why discrimination wrongs people. The author explains why, in this context, it is important to think of subordination as “social subordination”—that is, as something that happens to a person by virtue of her membership in a certain social group. The author argues that social subordination involves not only differences in the power, authority, and deference given to particular social groups, but also, crucially, the presence of what the author calls “structural accommodations.” These are practices that normalize the needs of the superior groups and render invisible the needs of inferior groups. The author then uses this account of subordination to explain a variety of ways in which direct and indirect discrimination contribute to unfair subordination. Both forms of discrimination perpetuate differences in power, authority, and deference. Direct discrimination also subordinates by marking out certain people or groups as inferior, constituting an expression of censure. And indirect discrimination contributes to unfair subordination when it leaves in place problematic structural accommodations, rendering certain groups invisible, and thereby marking them out as inferior, in certain contexts.