Rex Kerr
2 min readJan 9, 2023

--

In the long run, assuming we actually do this diligently for now? No, it's a medium-term measure--after it mostly works, there's nothing left to do.

The problem is that inequality can set up self-perpetuating or very very slowly-resolving inequities, which is both unfair to the affected group and bad for everyone in society.

If you use inequity as a flag for problem areas but establish policies that are blind to everything but individual need, you have a decent shot at overcoming the inequality-induced inequity, because presumably that situation, even if quasi-stable, isn't really the natural way for society to work: give people a path to something better and, presumably, they'll tend to take it. For example, the school funding model is pretty awful in the U.S.--rich neighborhoods get the best-funded schools, which (even though the U.S. is also really bad at turning dollars into educated students) means that the haves get better chances to do well than the have-nots. Because of historical inequality, there is a really large disparity in have-nots, but fixing the school funding situation can reduce that disparity perpetuating.

But once we have sensible policies in place, and society has time to resettle into a new mode, there may very well be residual inequities, and that should be fine. Because we were only ever using inequity to target our attention to how to build a universally fair society...if it's fair and people freely make different choices, and we can measure that...well...that's up to them. So if it works, it's self-extinguishing, at least in terms of whether it's "anti-racist" or not--and there could still be individual racism at that point; there just wouldn't be a relevant amount of structural racism.

--

--

Rex Kerr
Rex Kerr

Written by Rex Kerr

One who rejoices when everything is made as simple as possible, but no simpler. Sayer of things that may be wrong, but not so bad that they're not even wrong.

Responses (1)