, and in some unexpected places.
Conservatives, libertarians and other see-it-our-White-way advocates have made it clear that this diversity thing has gone too far. Universities have become far too liberal, making them uncomfortable places for conservative students, teachers and thinkers, . K-12 schools are not the place for what they call "critical race theory," which strangely seems to include Black history, a part of United States history that has its own month. Some of them think school board, city council, state legislature and congressional seats should have districts evenly divided by population and nothing else. In other words, there's no need to consider racial balance when it comes to governing.
What's next?
A lot.
Just earlier this month, Do No Harm and the Pacific Legal Foundation filed a lawsuit against then-Gov. John Bel Edwards alleging that it's wrong to require the inclusion of "racial minorities" seats on , the top medical licensing and regulatory board for Louisiana health care workers. If you or someone you know thinks a doctor botched your surgery or your hip replacement, this is the board that might consider your case. They could put the doctor on probation, or worse.
The board had eight members. That number was expanded to 10 by a That law requires that certain constituencies be represented.
To ensure geographic diversity on the board, the Louisiana State Medical Society gets two seats, and one must represent a parish or municipality with fewer than 20,000 people.Â
The Tulane Medical School gets one. The Louisiana Medical Association gets two. The Louisiana Academy of Family Practice Physicians gets one. The Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at New Orleans, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport and the Louisiana Hospital Association each get a seat. There's a seat for a non-physician consumer representative.Â
To ensure racial diversity, the LSU Health Sciences Center at New Orleans, the LSU Health Sciences Center at Shreveport, the hospital association and the consumer seats have a stipulation: "At least every other member appointed from a list provided for (this group) shall be a minority appointee."
When this newspaper's reporter James Finn wrote about , I raised my eyebrows, and I decided to spend some time finding out why the plaintiffs see this as a legitimate moral or legal issue. To me, it's an example of a broad attack on the civil rights and justice progress we've made.
Diversity and racial quotas have been attacked since before they were created, yet quite a number — if not all — of them have helped bring diverse representation and diverse voices where some of us had not been represented. As a longtime diversity advocate, I'm not willing to ditch quotas as though quotas are a bad thing in totality. Like anything else, quotas might be used for ill intent in a few cases, but most are not.
This explanation from ‎, Pacific Legal's lead attorney on the case, says a lot:
"Racial quotas are detrimental because they undermine a fundamental principle that has always been at the heart of our Constitution treating people as individuals, not as members of a collective. The government should not be in a position to discriminate against people from serving their local communities based on characteristics they have no control over. The key is for local communities and government to focus on increasing opportunities for people to get involved, not requiring racial balancing, which is demeaning to all involved."Â
When I talked to ‎ Tuesday, she assured me that they have the best intentions with the lawsuit. They want to see equality for everyone everywhere, she told me. And, yes, some Do No Harm members are interested in serving on the board.
Though this matter hasn't had a lot of attention, I assure you that this is no small thing. They want a court ruling that finds that the board makeup violates the U.S. Constitution's equal protection clause. Pacific Legal has a track record of success. They've had 19 cases go to the U.S. Supreme Court. Of those, they've won 17.Â
The truth is there is no "what's next" question. While they're on a roll — win, lose or draw — these conservatives, Libertarians and see-it-my-White-way advocates are determined to find any violation of their viewpoint with the aim of dismantling it.
Those who think diversity is a good thing can't afford to pay attention to the biggest anti-diversity moves and forget about things happening under the radar because those might be some of the things that might hurt us most.