Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: Opposing Viewpoints Issues Pages

"Affirmative action refers to policies and practices designed to mitigate discrimination and expand opportunities for members of historically underrepresented groups, such as people of color and women, particularly in education, employment, and housing. Such policies are intentional responses to systemic inequities that have blocked access to academic institutions, professional opportunities, and the accumulation of financial wealth for many Americans. Furthermore, proponents of affirmative action contend it is necessary to rectify past injustices such as racial slavery, the displacement of Native Americans, coverture laws (laws that gave men legal status over women, including possession of money and property, after marriage), and persistent social inequalities."

"Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a civil rights movement and activist network that originated from a hashtag campaign on social media in 2013. The #BlackLivesMatter campaign gained momentum online in the wake of a Florida jury finding George Zimmerman not guilty of the second-degree murder of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black high school student whom Zimmerman shot and killed. Zimmerman claimed self-defense, but many people saw his acquittal by a jury as racially biased. As a social movement, BLM has focused largely on the lack of accountability for state violence committed against Black Americans, particularly police violence."

"Since the mid-twentieth century, political activism and legal advocacy have made significant gains in advancing equality for the LGBTQ+ community in the United States. This diverse community includes lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people, and others with a broad range of sexual orientations and gender identities. Public opinion and policy have evolved alongside these gains. Support for marriage equality for LGBTQ+ people, for example, dramatically increased from the 1980s into the twenty-first century. Several states maintained laws against same-sex marriage until 2015 when the Supreme Court ruled such prohibitions unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment. In 2020 the Supreme Court ruled that LGBTQ+ employees are protected by federal law under the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibiting discrimination based on sex..."

"The many ways in which people of different races perceive and behave toward one another are called race relations. In the United States, race relations are often tinged with friction between racial and ethnic groups. Sociologists examining race relations take into consideration the power dynamics, inequalities, and levels of violence between racial groups, including racism. Racism is discrimination and antipathy against members of a race, ethnic, or other marginalized group within social systems that favor one racial or ethnic group over others and reinforce its political and economic power. Intersectionality is an academic theory that describes how characteristics of race, gender, sexual orientation, ability, and economic class create and influence hierarchical social systems. Sociologists assert that understanding intersectionality can help..."