In the fall of 2010, at Keene State University, I taught a writing- and reading-intensive course on a topic that fascinated me immensely. The course, “Tolerance, Prejudice, and Constructing the ‘Real American,’” looked at marginalization in American identity formation. Contradictions at the heart of American nationalism and citizenship were its focus. The white, Christian domination on which the colonies originally rested was challenged by a rights-based regime with an increasingly expansive franchise. Official religions were disestablished; the post–Civil War constitutional amendments launched America's gradual recognition of black people as full human beings; dissent against government policy and corporate practice became bolder and more effective; women gained the vote and the right to live fulfilling lives; lesbian and gay people eventually attained a measure of dignity within public life.

 

Still, it remains unclear how easily differing voices and subcultures can be reconciled with a civic nation based on majority will and majority rule. This remains true for religious difference. Does a pluralistic republic that “contains” differing religious voices honor genuine democracy, or does it violate it? Do law and social norms based on religious pluralism paper over the inevitable conflict between dominant and subordinate groups? Will Christian conservatives inevitably see prejudice as salutary within a political setting? Are free-speech prohibitions the product of a political assault by cultural radicals or by powerful protectors of capitalism, racism, and misogyny?

 

Questions such as these were explored in this vigorous, intensive course.