Initially I wasn’t going to address you, but your arrogance when addressing the other commenter is disturbing and would benefit from some simplistic education.
The definition I provided is indeed the true definition of equity. Equality would be to provide all individuals with the same opportunity, however the simple inclusion of the word FAIRNESS allows for greater exploration. It takes equality a step further by assuring that while the same opportunities are given to all people, consideration of what each individual may need to be successful is taken into consideration creates EQUITY.
Merit cannot be the most important measure of a society that is not equal. By your suggestion, because the current system may work for you it’s problematic to review it for deficiencies. The statement “equity is nonsensical” is itself nonsense. To suggest that creating a fair and just society in a country that claims to be one where all men were created equal is nonsense extremely contradictory.
Your comment that equity requires statistical measure of racial diversity and suggestion that it would be too much of an undertaking underscores the need for this very program.
Inequity has existed because the majority population doesn’t feel the effort to ensure all Americans are treated fairly and that cultural differences are taken into consideration is worth the time or attention it requires. This mentality only serves to further promote racism and white supremacy.
If merit was the most important measure, legacy admissions at Ivy League schools such as Harvard and others wouldn’t exist. Whites have had an unfair leg up in higher education for centuries.
It is virtually impossible to suggest that this country has become an all inclusive leveled playing field when slavery ended less than 200 years ago and was in existence longer than it has been abolished.
One woman’s dismissal (Tabitha Lee) from a community college is hardly enough evidence to completely disregard the benefits of an inclusive society. Again the fact that you make these kind of problematic statements once again reinforces why these programs are necessary in the first place.
Black people did not collectively outlaw or oppose affirmative action. I believe every solution that address white supremacy and the institutionalized racism this country continues to practice for should be on the table. I’m intelligent enough to understand this will never be the case but as a Black person living on the opposite side of favor, I will always feel that way. I also believe that since affirmative action was disbanded in colleges and universities, legacy admissions should also be a thing of the past if this is to be the meritocracy you speak of.
DEI is not a failed concept and is one that is not going away. The only problem with DEI are the whites who feel that its policies will somehow take something from them that they didn’t work to earn in the first place.
