ABSTRACT
Feminist legal theorist Drucilla Cornell is one who explicitly asks the question of what it means to be imposing on the world more adequate unifying concepts, particularly in theorizing oppression. Cornell's suggestion is not that feminists need to examine the "underlying" myths and fantasies of a society to get it right about political organization. There are two questions that need to be raised about Cornell's suggestion about a social unconscious and about the possibility of effectively examining underlying social myths and fantasies. The significance of the notion of "social unconscious" is that in theorizing about racism and sexism, people have to pay attention to "underlying" social myths and fantasies and how they distort understanding of the ways in which people and phenomena should be classified. The important grain of truth in Cornell's discussion of the relevance of the "unconscious" is that racist, sexist assumptions are implicit in fundamental meanings and ways of thinking.
