The year of 1980 marked a pivotal turning point in the American political landscape: the electoral victory of presidential candidate Ronald Reagan; the beginnings of the public hysteria and eventual legislative dismantling of affirmative action and other civil rights initiatives; the dawn of the ruthless reign of neo-conservatism; and, in some ways serving as the glue, the ascent of neo-liberalism as the prevailing ideology and standard logic of viewing and ordering the world. Some thirty-five y