Paul Gomberg, How to Make Opportunity Equal: Race and Contributive Justice

Abstract

A great many liberal egalitarian philosophers regard the issue of equal opportunity as one of ensuring not merely that all have the same legal rights of access to positions of advantage in society (such as being a doctor, lawyer, or engineer) but also that all have a fair chance to attain them (see Rawls 1971, p. 73; Jacobs 2004, p. 9). Paul Gomberg’s book, How to Make Opportunity Equal, defends the radical position that this kind of competitive equality of opportunity is ‘impossible’ and that, at any rate, true equality of opportunity only comes about when all labor, both routine and complex, is shared (pp. 1−2). Professor Gomberg writes in a hard-hitting, knowledgeable and engaging way about the problems of racism and lack of opportunity in American society and marshals an array of statistical and anecdotal evidence to illustrate his case. Although he does not advocate that workers seize control of production through revolution, Gomberg is clearly a Marxist at heart arguing as he does that society ought to ‘change the organization of production so that opportunity to perform complex labor is unlimited’ (pp. 166−7). According to Marx (1844, 1867), capitalist modes of production and the specialization of human labor turn the worker into a living appendage of productive machinery; enslaved by his productive role, his work is repetitive drudgery. For his part, Gomberg acknowledges that routine labor is concentrated within the ranks of the working classes but highlights the important dimension of race in the US. He argues that unequal educational opportunities, lack of opportunity to perform complex labor and disproportionate poverty among African Americans are not just class phenomena, they are the result of historical and systematic anti-black prejudice, discrimination, stereotyping and segregation (Chap. 1). Faced with the reply that many poor white people do as badly in schools and in the labor market as black people, Gomberg replies by insisting that the cause of lack of opportunity among the black community is anti-black racism and that if some poor white people are doing as badly, then this is because ‘something like racism’ is adversely affecting their prospects as well (pp. 9−10). Ethic Theory Moral Prac (2008) 11:113–116 DOI 10.1007/s10677-007-9099-x