>> I read Biden’s Executive Order
It start nicely, defining equity as ” consistent and systematic fair, just, and impartial treatment of all individuals, including individuals who belong to underserved communities that have been denied such treatment,”. Who can be against “impartial treatment”?!
next – “agencies shall consult with members of communities that have been historically underrepresented in the Federal Government”. So, here is the test for equal outcome, rather than equal opportunity.
next – Many Federal datasets are not disaggregated by race, ethnicity, gender, disability, income, veteran status, or other key demographic variables. we will all be marked up by reporting, I presume, our races, ethnicity, sexual preferences …
What does Gemora say about equity? What comes to my mind is how do we monitor several farmers along a river to ensure “equity”. The answer is that we do not – we let the first farmer along the river to possibly use more water “le derech shalom”. Maybe there is more discussion there…But at minimum this identifies potential danger of pursuing equity – inevitable fights for more or less equity (hope this word is still allowed!).
As Exhibit A, currently any policy streamlining vaccination is attacked as potentially inequitable. Statnews (sic!) counts percentage of vaccinated in rich and poor, black and white counties, not even bothering to weight by population age. Ein ledavar sof.