"'Equity' Works as a Mandate to Discriminate"

 So reads the provocative and mistaken headline to an opinion piece posted in The Wall Street Journal on March 5, authored by Professor Emeritus Lipson of the University of Chicago.

 

He states the issue this way:  “There is a big difference between equal treatment and equal outcomes.  Equality means equal treatment, unbiased competition and impartially judged outcomes.  Equity means equal outcomes, achieved if necessary by unequal treatment, biased competition and preferential judging.”

 

Professor Lipson founds his opinion piece on a fundamental error.  “Equity” does not mean “equal outcomes” not, at least, for me.  What equity means and requires is equal opportunity.

 

And, yes, to test whether equal opportunities actually are being provided, we must measure how outcomes compare.

 

For example, if one finds, as we have, that African-Americans entering a corporation do so with every available test measure and interviews showing comparable likelihood to succeed, and if we find African-Americans are advancing at a significantly lower rate than their white peers, one has to ask, have they been provided equal opportunity?  Have they received the mentoring support, the advocacy, the placement in positions which offer the best opportunities to enhance growth and provide visibility of superior performance?

 

There is, to be sure, a challenging question as to what represents equal opportunity and how should it be applied.  There are tough choices here.  There is no dismissing that fact.

 

One emerges in college admissions.  On average, the SAT or ACT scores of African-Americans are lower than whites or Asian-Americans.  If admissions were based entirely or very heavily on SAT scores, the percentage of African-Americans being admitted to so-called premiere schools would be lower than they are today.  Does the assessment of what is “equal opportunity” allow for the admission of an African-American student qualified highly in every respect than perhaps his or her SAT score relative to a white or Asian-American applicant justify admitting the African-American?

 

My answer to this is yes.

 

Does my reaching this conclusion take into account the multitude of challenges faced by African-Americans over time which in fact amount to a lack of equal opportunity?

 

Again, yes.

 

To deny that this is a balancing act would be to deny reality.  But it is a balancing act we are called on to make in order to provide equal opportunity to the best of our ability.