The Biden Administration's Pursuit of Unequal Treatment
Key Takeaways
The Biden Administration's agenda of
replacing equal treatment with a
redefined "equity" will create division
among Americans, not unity.
Under
the Administration's new equity agenda,
Americans will be privileged or
disadvantaged according to their race,
sex, ethnicity, or sexual preference.
Washington must protect equality as
defined by the Founding Fathers so that
everyone has the chance to achieve the
American dream regardless of background.
The Issues
The Biden Administration is advancing a divisive agenda that seeks to treat individual Americans unequally by pursuing a redefined "equity." In its new use, equity (which used to mean equal treatment of individuals) has been corrupted to mean unequal treatment in order to obtain equal outcomes as measured among racial, ethnic, and gender-oriented groups, and other identity categories. This approach leads to an unequal application of the law.
The Biden
Administration deems "equality" to be
unfair, because it does not produce the
desired goal of equal outcomes among
categories based on race, sex,
ethnicity, or sexual preference. The new
"equity," which preaches differential
treatment according to membership in
these categories, is seen as fair
because it strives to produce equal
outcomes.
Background
In November 2020, Vice President Kamala Harris Tweeted, "There's a big difference between equality and equity. Equality suggests, "everyone should get the same amount." Equity, on the other hand, she says, is "about giving people the resources and the support they need, so that everyone can be on equal footing, and then compete on equal footing. Equitable treatment means we all end up in the same place."
Vice President
Harris's corrupt understanding of equity
is backed up by an academic
discipline known as critical race
theory that has become highly
influential in the new Administration.
One of the best-known practitioners of
critical race theory in America today is
author and Boston University professor
Ibram X. Kendi, who states that "racial
equity is when two or more racial groups
are standing on a relatively equal
footing."
President Joe
Biden has signed a flurry of executive
orders (EOs) signaling that "equity," in
this new understanding, will be his top
priority for domestic and even foreign
policy. On his first day in office,
President Biden signed the "Executive
Order on Advancing Racial Equity and
Support for Underserved Communities
Through the Federal Government." Its
effect will be the universal application
of the "disparate impact" doctrine. The
disparate impact doctrine posits that an
entirely neutral policy that does not
discriminate on its face, that is not
intended to discriminate, and that does
not actually treat individuals
differently based on their race, somehow
constitutes illegal racial
discrimination if it has a
"disproportionate" statistical effect
among different racial and ethnic
groups.
This new EO
includes the term "equity" 21 times,
while not including the term "equality"
even once. Also, neither the President
nor members of his Administration use
the term "equality" anymore, and when
they do use it accidentally, they
publicly correct themselves.
The officially
disadvantaged categories according to
which outcomes will be judged are, per
the EO, "underserved communities such as
Black, Latino, and Indigenous and Native
American persons, Asian Americans and
Pacific Islanders and other persons of
color."
Another Biden EO
describes overlapping discrimination on
the basis of gender identity, sexual
orientation, and race, citing
"transgender Black Americans." It claims
to advance equal treatment, but ignores
the significant disadvantages to girls
and women when the law treats biological
boys and men as if they were biological
girls and women.
Why Such
Policies Harm All Amercians
Using
equity as the standard will mean
violating the Constitution and existing
law. The Constitution demands equal
treatment. The 14th Amendment, for one,
guarantees "equal protection under the
law." Titles VI and VII of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964 prohibit
discrimination based on race, color,
religion, sex, or national origin.
The misuse of equity also violates
cherished principles that continue to
have a strong psychic hold on the minds
of many Americans, such as the
foundational principle that "all men are
created equal." To breach these
principles is, therefore, highly
divisive.
Because success
and failure will be measured not by
individual outcome, but according to the
numerical representation of official
categories, the policy enforces a caste
system that is alien to the American
ethos. A Chilean-origin neurosurgeon
will be counted as a member of a
marginalized group, in need of greater
government resources than a white
life-long waitress in Pensacola. Social
disadvantage, the new policy effectively
holds, is determined at birth, and
cannot be shaken by success and
achievement.
Despite the
superficial appeal of "fighting racism,"
these policies will do little to
alleviate poverty and inequality. As
scholars such as Ron Haskins, Robert
Rector, Isabel Sawhill, and others have
demonstrated, the real drivers of
American poverty for all racial
groups are the so-called background
variables of family structure,
educational attainment, and workforce
participation.
Under the
disparate impact doctrine, any policy
that leads to unequal outcomes as
measured by category is illegal, no
matter how impartially applied or how
nondiscriminatory its nature. The
disparate impact doctrine, therefore,
leads policymakers to seek
color-conscious policies in the search
of achieving numerically proportional
outcomes. This produces policies that
are unfair and wasteful.
To achieve such
numerical proportionalism requires
coercion, which the proponents of equity
openly support. As Professor Kendi has
written: "The only remedy to racist
discrimination is antiracist
discrimination. The only remedy to past
discrimination is present
discrimination. The only remedy to
present discrimination is future
discrimination."
Americans need
Washington to protect equality as
defined by the Founding Fathers so that
everyone, regardless of background or
ethnicity, has the chance to achieve the
American dream.
heritage