Liberal universal citizenship can leave excluded identity intact beneath its surface

Evidence

Nonracialism, then, like the emperor’s clothes, is what the state wears to represent itself to the world, how it looks. Joseph’s technicolor dreamcoat, not the high priest’s uniform of any one subgroup or sect. The cloak of national citizenship should be for all to see, for any citizen to take on. At home, in private, one can assume any sectarian uniform, in concert or competition with others, so long as the multi-colored public cover of national unity is respected, indeed embraced, particular identities no matter. Liberal democracy’s nonracialism accordingly is the inversion, the turning inside out, of apartheid’s absolutizing of identity politics. A reversible coat leaves the original on the inside. — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1620

Categorization

• XREF: Directly serves the reader’s contact/institution gap: the reversible coat metaphor captures how surface egalitarianism coexists with untouched underlying differentiation, parallel to interracial socializing without institutional redress. — connects to: Liberal citizenship theory excludes communal identity from public recognition because diversity complicates state mediation — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 880; Formal liberal citizenship equality masks an assimilationist strategy; Identity is constituted through exclusion of what it is not (+5 more)
• ADDENDUM: The ‘reversible coat leaves the original on the inside’ image parallels the complaints-about-immodesty pattern where surface norms cloak class/identity politics.

Broader Connections

• Formal liberal citizenship equality masks an assimilationist strategy #corroborates (0.90)
• Liberal citizenship theory excludes communal identity from public recognition because diversity complicates state mediation #expands (0.86) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 880
• Liberalism must be reformed to accommodate recognition of collective identities #responds-to (0.85)
• Multicultural citizenship reconciles universal rights with minority particularistic claims #complicates (0.84) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 830
• Identity is constituted through exclusion of what it is not #expands (0.82)
• Secular citizenship depends on a national personality it cannot shed #corroborates (0.80)
• Enlightenment universalism made racial exclusion the sole unjustifiable barrier to free-colored citizenship #exemplifies (0.78)