Also writing in the/Atlantic/, Adam Serwer zooms that historical camera
out even further. As far back as Reconstruction, calls for civility have
been tethered to disenfranchisement. After all, it’s easy to discuss the
“race problem” using calm inside voices when the only voices present are
white, male, and personally unaffected by the threats to civil rights
under discussion. In our present era, Serwer explains, lamentations
about the loss of civility have a similarly antidemocratic undercurrent,
pointing to a halcyon yesteryear when there were fewer voices at the
table, and fewer restrictions on what those in power had to answer for.
Civility then and civility now is an assertion of power, and an effort
to maintain the status quo. It is best defined, Serwer says, not as “not
being an asshole,” but rather as “I can do what I want and you can shut up.”
http://bostonreview.net/gender-sexuality/whitney-phillips-whose-anger-counts
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