File: powell final for Darby 2009] Created on: 3/15/2009 12:55:00 PM Last Printed: 4/3/2009 10:11:00 AM POST-RACIALISM OR TARGETED UNIVERSALISM 797 propriate to remove the institutional and situational constrains of group A. This is the universal part of the effort. But it is equally important to remove the additional constrains that are experienced by group B. This is the targeted part of the effort. Failure to do so in issues related to race will not only reproduce racialized disparities, it will also continue to support divisive racialized meaning and discourse. Race was a central issue in the Mt. Laurel suit brought to address the needs of low-income home seekers.59 For the sake of comity, the case was reframed as a case about class instead of race. It was assumed that because Blacks and Latinos were in greater need of affordable housing, policy makers could address the issue of race in a less divisive universal frame of class or socioeconomic status. The program proved successful in producing affordable housing. But it also increased the racial isolation of Blacks and further segregated them from opportunity.60 On closer examination, it is clear why this universal program worked to further isolate non-whites. Non-whites were not just constrained by the lack of affordable housing; they were also constrained by discrimination. In addition, their housing needs were different than many of their white counterparts. Because they had larger families, they could not use the one and two bedrooms units built that would address the need of many of the whites. Even though both white and non-white groups need low income housing, and both groups were low income, they were not similarly situated as the court and policy maker assumed. Like the VA program and the New Deal, it increased the material and social distance between poor whites and poor non-whites. The housing program failed to understand the importance of the situatedness of different groups in relation to institutional interactions and processes. To fully understand the importance of this situatedness, one must look at what the interaction of institutions does in creating and distributing opportunity benefits and burdens. The political philosopher Iris Young observed that the more complex society becomes, the more our relationships and opportunities will be mediated through institutional arrangements.61 This is not just true in relationship to non-whites but for all groups in society. As we consider the importance of this insight, at a rudimentary level, it is not particularly profound. Most of our modes of commerce, from the purchase of groceries to banking, have been depersonalized. Instead of buying produce from the farmer or taking a loan from the local are attentive to how opportunity is distributed and for whom. While we cannot determine the outcome of such a discussion, it would be beneficial to have such a discussion. It would also be useful for the policy maker to deliberately consider our situatedness and its relevance when adopting policies. 59. S. Burlington County N.A.A.C.P. v. Mount Laurel Twp., 336 A.2d 713, 717 (N.J. 1975). 60. Naomi Bailin Wish & Stephen Eisdorfer, The Impact of Mount Laurel Initiatives: An Analysis of the Characteristics of Applicants and Occupants, 27 SETON HALL L. REV. 1268, 1302– 05 (1997). 61. IRIS MARION YOUNG, INCLUSION AND DEMOCRACY 121–22 (Oxford Univ. Press 2000).