In a provocative examination of the role of law in promoting social change, Kristin Bumiller contents that one effect of antidiscrimination laws has been to perpetuate the victimization of the people they were intended to benefit. Probing the role of legal ideology in "the social construction of everyday life," The Civil Rights Society describes the ways in which the social identity of victims constrains their choices and reinforces their sense of powerlessness.

Whereas previous analyses have documented the ineffectiveness of antidiscrimination measures, Bumiller focuses on the impact of unrelistic expectations about law on people's lives. Grounded in a wide reading of social theory and supported with interview data, The Civil Rights Society reveals an important dimension of the failure of legal action to address many of the most persistent forms of racial and sexual oppression.