Systemic inequity

This is a brilliant article.  It focuses on health inequity, but applies quite well to to a wide range of things, including education, justice, housing, voting, finance, and governance. Here's my distillation of the message:

"...we must build a deeper understanding of racism as a system of advantage — otherwise our ... efforts are bound to simply remain diversity and inclusion projects."

{My sidebar: Diversity and inclusion efforts are initiatives that add some of the disenfranchised, marginalized, or disadvantaged to the 'lucky' territories within the current system but - and this is important - they assume that the current system works and should be left as is. Diversity and inclusion efforts are basically enablers of the status quo because they provide concessions (often called 'accommodations') to struggling groups so they can better cope with the system that marginalizes them. They are NOT attempts to change the system so they are not marginalized and no longer need concessions. This is like rearranging the cabin assignments on the Titanic" so fewer poor people perish. It would be far better to keep the Titanic from hitting the iceberg so everyone can reach their destination.}

"Simply accommodating people in systems that were never designed for their survival is inherently inequitable. We must understand how things got this way and explicitly address the systemic imbalance of power and advantage in our approaches to ... equity."



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