In Dean Spade’s essay, he identifies several shortcomings of current anti-discrimination and hate crime law reforms. There is hope that these laws will benefit people within marginalized groups, but there are many limitations to current law reforms. Errors of anti-discrimination laws include the false notions of equality or fairness with the new law reforms because oppression and discrimination of numerous identities (Spade, 2015, p.43). Spade claims that “the perpetrator perspective” obscures the historical framework of systemic prejudice against people of color. For example, these anti-discrimination law reforms theoretically end racism, but in reality enhance color-blindness. Additionally, Spade (2015) claims that hate crime law reforms oversimplify hate crimes and discount transphobia in prison systems. For example, Spade asserts that the prison system targets people these hate crime law reforms are supposed to protect and reinforces transphobia even though it claims to be more inclusive (Spade, 2015, p. 47).
Spade, D. (2015). Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and the Limits of Law. London, England: Duke University Press.