Abstract This article examines the case of Moms 4 Housing, a group of Black mothers who occupied a vacant house in Oakland, California as an attempt to advance a human right to housing. It argues that the U.S. penchant for rights discrimination, the idea that one must choose between whose and which rights matter, contributes to the need for a rhetorical strategy of rights-blurring. Building on previous scholarship that establishes a history of Black women connecting civil rights to human rights as a rhetorical strategy in the United States, this article explains how rights-blurring actually operates. It also demonstrates how this strategy functions in conversations about property rights in the United States and in the context of a twenty-first century direct-action protest.

Book Review| June 01 2014 Distant Publics: Development Rhetoric and the Subject of Crisis Distant Publics: Development Rhetoric and the Subject of Crisis. By Jenny Rice. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2012; pp. x + 230. $25.95 paper. Whitney Gent Whitney Gent University of Wisconsin, Madison Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Rhetoric and Public Affairs (2014) 17 (2): 358–361. https://doi.org/10.14321/rhetpublaffa.17.2.0358 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation Whitney Gent; Distant Publics: Development Rhetoric and the Subject of Crisis. Rhetoric and Public Affairs 1 June 2014; 17 (2): 358–361. doi: https://doi.org/10.14321/rhetpublaffa.17.2.0358 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectiveMichigan State University PressRhetoric and Public Affairs Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. © 2014 Michigan State University Board of Trustees. All rights reserved.2014 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.