These two modes of politics, then, both based on the notion
of equal respect, come into conflict. For one, the principle
of equal respect requires that we treat people in a difference-
blind fashion. The fundamental intuition that humans
command this respect focuses on what is the same in all. For
the other, we have to recognize and even foster particularity.
The reproach the first makes to the second is just that it violates
the principle of nondiscrimination. The reproach the
second makes to the first is that it negates identity by forcing
people into a homogeneous mold that is untrue to them.
This would be bad enough if the mold were itself neutral—
nobody’s mold in particular. But the complaint generally
goes further. The claim is that the supposedly neutral set of
difference-blind principles of the politics of equal dignity is
in fact a reflection of one hegemonic culture. As it turns out,
then, only the minority or suppressed cultures are being
forced to take alien form. Consequently, the supposedly fair
and difference-blind society is not only inhuman (because
suppressing identities) but also, in a subtle and unconscious
way, itself highly discriminatory.19
This last attack is the cruelest and most upsetting of all.
The liberalism of equal dignity seems to have to assume that
there are some universal, difference-blind principles. Even
though we may not have defined them yet, the project of