Separate-but-equal doctrine equalized nominal access while fixing unequal quality.

Evidence

The formalism of “separate but equal” in the US historical context couldn’t quite pull off that picture. “Separate but equal” rationalized the differential quality for blacks and whites of public accommodations such as railway carriages and public education facilities so long as each group equally had access to some such public accommodations, no matter the differential quality. The legal sleight of hand was to equalize nominal access at the expense of equalizing the standard or quality of accommodations. Equality in this scheme would be preserved so long as a black person could ride in a third-class carriage or study in a third-class institution no matter that first-class facilities in each case had been reserved exclusively for whites. A devil’s contract, to be sure. — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 132

Categorization

• XREF: The gap between formal access and substantive quality parallels the reader’s contact-versus-institution divide. — connects to: Formal equal access from unequal starting positions perpetuates exclusion — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 115; Formal equality doctrine becomes a weapon against material equality — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 959; Law converts difference into sameness to enable formal equal treatment — David Theo Goldberg, The Racial State, 82 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Formal legal equality obscures real inequality because equivalence as a legal norm ignores difference #expands (0.92) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 786
• Formal equal right applied to unequal individuals necessarily produces inequality. #corroborates (0.90) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 416
• Formal equality doctrine becomes a weapon against material equality #expands (0.85) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 959
• Formal equal access from unequal starting positions perpetuates exclusion #corroborates (0.82) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 115
• School choice worsens inequality when access prerequisites are unequal #exemplifies (0.80) — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 957
• Law converts difference into sameness to enable formal equal treatment #corroborates (0.78) — David Theo Goldberg, The Racial State, 82
• Equalized consumption conceals rather than dissolves class division. #corroborates (0.75) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 122