Rights, Reinscription, & Legal Consciousness: Racist and Sexist Speech at Work and on the Street

This presentation combines a presentation of work from Nielsen's first book, License to Harass: Law, Hierarchy & Offensive Public Speech, with her new book, Rights on Trial: How Workplace Discrimination Law Perpetuates Inequality, to explore a foundational question: When and how can law successfully intervene to remedy existing structures of inequalities of unearned privilege? In other words, what is the appropriate role of law in addressing the pressing social problems of racism, sexism, ableism, and other loci of discrimination in different contexts.