Moving Beyond Civil Rights - NYTimes.com: CIVIL rights have transformed American society, and made it fairer and less divided, by outlawing overt racial discrimination and making bigotry socially unacceptable. That success has inspired a host of social groups to press for new civil rights.
But civil rights have barely made a dent in today’s most severe and persistent social injustices, such as the disproportionate incarceration of African-Americans, the glass ceiling that blocks career advancement for many women and high unemployment among the elderly; in fact, some of these problems have gotten worse despite civil rights laws intended to address them. Today’s most pressing injustices require comprehensive changes in the practices of the police, schools and employers — not simply responses to individual injuries.
