Conditions Quote by Dean Spade

“Legal reform has significant dangers: changing only the window-dressing of harmful systems but leaving the violence of the systems in tact, failing to provide actual relief for those facing the worst conditions, and legitimizing or expanding systems of harm.”

Dean Spade

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Conditions Danger Dressings Expanding Failing Harm Law Leaving Reform Relief Significant Tact Violence Window Window dressing Worst

More by Dean Spade

Because my graduate academic training at law school was not one that included most of the intellectual traditions I find useful for understanding the…

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One of the concepts I was having trouble illustrating was the concept that administrative systems create narrow categories of gender and force people into…

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Let’s be gentle with ourselves and each other and fierce as we fight oppression.

Dean Spade

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More conservative advocacy work often encourages portrayals of trans people as people who deserve rights. Deservingness, of course, corresponds to national racial, gender and…

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Instead of focusing on what the law says about trans people, which is really what the law is saying about itself as a protector…

Dean Spade

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In addition to encouraging us to participate in narratives of "deservingness" that cast large parts of our constituencies as "undeserving," legal reform strategies encourage…

Dean Spade

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"Oppression" or "systems of oppression" operate as a shorthand terms in much writing and speaking so that we do not have to list all…

Dean Spade

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I am interested in recent scholarly work examining the emergence of women's studies and ethnic studies departments and the development of the neoliberal university.

Dean Spade

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Choosing an agenda that supports the apparatuses of racial violence always pays better.

Dean Spade

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My work is heavily influenced by critiques that many critical intellectual traditions, especially Critical Race Theory, have made of reform projects focused on legal…

Dean Spade

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Legal reform organizations are usually trying to portray their constituents as "hard workers," as "not criminals," as citizens, as part of normative family arrangements,…

Dean Spade

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One particular debate that I have seen play out again and again is whether trans people who have more traditional gender expressions or who…

Dean Spade

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Explore all 49 Dean Spade quotes

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One can put some trust in the gratitude of a sovereign, and also in that of his family; under certain conditions, one can even…

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Most celebrated men live in a condition of prostitution.

Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve

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It's easier to change a law than an age-old mentality. Deep down, many prejudices, many hostilities, many fears persist. But if we take a…

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I can still function when I don't have that balance I crave. I had a tendency to be precious about acting, thinking of it…

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History is, in its essentials, the science of change. It knows and it teaches that it is impossible to find two events that are…

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The average condition of the people improving or deteriorating, depends upon whether population is advancing faster than improvement, or improvement than population.

John Stuart Mill