"It's not enough to be against censorship or self-censorship," Susan Sontag
said recently, advertising a public lecture. "In a free society, you must be for
the right to offend." ¹ I think this provocative statement, at once sane and
subversive, captures the essence of objections to views, like mine, that justice
demands some kind of self-restraint. Too often, it is suggested, political
programs of self-restraint have the force of denying voice to the oppressed.
When there is a situation of unequal political power, especially, the demand
for civility may seem just another strategy of ideological continuance. As
long as we can force subordinate groups to adopt the nostrums of "proper
behavior," perhaps even making them complicit in adopting perversities like
"good girl" or "good nigger" roles, the perpetuation of our system of domi-
nance is assured. Armed with a theory of justice turning on propriety, we can

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