ABSTRACT
Chapter 8 builds on the previous analyses and illustrates the range of uses of dignitarian stories. The dignitarian imagination is the domain of diversity, inclusion, anti-discrimination, and of critiques of colonial power. Dignitarian stories, as with all root narratives, are defined by the protagonist function: to create cultural disrespect of the Other. The substance of justice in these stories is disrespect for a marginalized entity that be defined as the Other. This Other can be any number of cultural outgroups and excluded groups, whose derogation is based on race, gender, sexuality, religious belief, language, nationality, and a variety of other grounds. The way the antagonist function inflects the dignity story is instructive. In the recognition story, the antagonist consists of members of the privileged status group itself. In a liberation story, the antagonist becomes the governing power and those members of the state institutions that abuse their power to keep the outgroup down. The Inclusion narrative is an integration story and turns to concern with the cultural implications of economic inequality. Inclusion stories portray antagonists as cultural elites with economic power, who discriminate against those they dislike and who hoard privileges for members of their ingroup.
