ABSTRACT
The literary theorist Walter Benn Michaels contrasts the actuality of economic inequality with progressive populist rhetoric about the many forms of oppression. Michaels questions the seriousness of efforts to understand the different forms of oppression on the basis of their intersectional equivalence. Neoliberal advocates of social justice, Michaels argues, use anti-oppression to recast exploitation as discrimination. Advancing equality of opportunity as the definition of justice, neoliberals reject oppression but accept exploitation. Because of this, anti-discrimination laws are proposed as the solution to the growing poverty of the majority. Consequent controversies over affirmative action policies, privilege, sensitivity training and demands for recognition are shown to serve the political interests of the upper-middle class, whose vision of equality leaves capitalism and the unequal distribution of wealth intact.
