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By Jennifer Rawls

Equality of opportunity and equity of outcome cannot coexist. The current administration uses the word equity like most people use “um.” It is the second word in the lucrative consulting field of “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion,” and surely it gives some warm and fuzzy feelings of fairness. But it is not warm, fuzzy or fair. It is a “dog whistle” for the identity Marxism of social justice warriors.

Our country was founded on principles of equality: All men are created equal. We are entitled to equal justice before the law and equal opportunities regardless of our class membership. Shamefully, our founding fathers did not treat all men (or women) as equals, but they were not alone in those views. Slavery and servitude were not unique to this country. Importantly, people alive today were not alive in 1776. Our country has matured since then, growing into one of the most diverse societies in the world where people are willing to take treacherous journeys just for the opportunity of the American Dream — the Dream that everyone who exercises their own free agency and takes responsibility for their own wellbeing can achieve success. A place different from any other country, including the ones they fled where they were truly oppressed and had no option but to continue to be oppressed.

Equity is at odds with these principles and the laws of this country. Social justice warriors reject equality because they believe it allows those who are ahead to get further ahead and those who are behind to get further behind. They have no empirical evidence for this belief and it is often entirely the opposite. People who are given everything squander it in the same way that people who have nothing exercise sheer will and determination to become successful.

In today’s DEI, equity involves the goal of ensuring that members of all protected classes are equally represented — without regard to individual merit. We have seen this lead to the elimination of “Gifted and Talented” programs. In the name of equity, each protected class should be equally represented as a percentage of their class. Assuming a target population with 10% Asian Americans, equity requires that Asian Americans make up 10% of the students admitted, even if they represent 25% of the best applicants. Thus, equity provides more opportunities to those who are less qualified and less to those who are more qualified, 15% of whom would be rejected simply because they were born into the wrong race. The Trump DoJ sued Harvard for discrimination for similar reasons. Bowing to DEIty, the Biden-Harris DoJ withdrew the complaint.

As demonstrated by IOWCS’s ongoing Equity Audit, equity is a euphemism for Critical Race Theory. The struggle sessions are divided by protected class. In all likelihood, the vast majority of IOWCS population is cisheteronormative white, yet the number of slots for parents and students making up that intersectional group is a fraction of the slots available for other groups. Worse than this class inequity is the fact that the school is dividing parents and children by protected class in the first place rather than coming together as a community with a common goal and purpose.

Social justice warriors blame all inequities on power struggles: racism, sexism, etc. They view equity as a way to achieve justice by providing for equal outcomes plus reparations. But this outcome-driven goal is an unfair and ineffective way to bridge the achievement gap. It also denies free agency and personal responsibility. There may be real issues with providing equal opportunities to students by fairly appropriating money among school districts, but equity does nothing to address that. Worse, the continued use of equity in this way is not only unlawful — it will lead to the breakdown of our free society.

Jennifer Rawls is a lifelong resident of Windsor and graduate of Windsor High School. She studied business and history at the College of William & Mary and graduated from law school at Washington & Lee University. She is a full-time attorney and mother to one son.