Un-imagined and un-deserving groups in anti-discrimination law

Who is entitled to the protection of anti-discrimination law? This question has to some extent been differentially answered across countries and continents. Khaitan argues that there has been “a growing (and often successful) clamour” by activists to extend anti-discrimination law. It is unclear how many groups is too many for anti-discrimination law or who should decide this and how. In this paper I consider some of the challenges facing different groups still not recognised in anti-discrimination law – those who are targets of intersectional discrimination, such as Black women, and those who are targets of weight discrimination. Using empirical data to demonstrate that the lack of recognition for these groups represents epistemic injustice, both testimonial and hermeneutical, I conclude that as a result an anti-discrimination law that relies on immutability as part of its architecture – paradoxically - perpetuates social injustice.