Kenneth L. Marcus, "Have We Moved on from Civility?"

Kenneth L. Marcus, "Have We Moved on from Civility?"

Kenneth L. Marcus, JD, is President and General Counsel of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and author of Jewish Identity and Civil Rights in America (New York: Cambridge University Press: 2010).  Previously he held the Lillie and Nathan Ackerman Chair in Equality and Justice in America at the City University of New York’s Bernard M. Baruch College School of Public Affairs.

 

"Have We Moved on From Civility? And If So, What is Next?”

Public Lecture: Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2-3:30pm, Cone 208

Free and open to the public

 

Abstract: The goal of “Civility” became enormously influential in recent years as a substitute for other goals that had come under fire for various reasons, e.g., tolerance, multiculturalism, etc.  But “civility” has always has various drawbacks. And there has always been the question as to whether it has been something of a dodge, a reactionary principle, or a substitute for more radical or “liberationist” alternative goals.  Over the last several weeks, it has been intensely criticized, both for good reasons and for bad ones.  In my view, “civility” was never the right answer to the question, “What are we for when we are against hate?”  On the other hand, the increasing rejection of civility (as a goal or value) may not be taking us in the right direction either.