The summer of 2020 was a watershed in American life. After George Floyd’s death in police custody and the ensuing season of rioting, major institutions—from federal agencies to Fortune 100 companies—hastily pledged themselves to the narrative of critical race theory, which holds that America is a fundamentally racist nation and that public and private entities should practice “antiracist discrimination” to equalize group outcomes—a state of affairs that its advocates call “racial equity.”
This ideology stands in direct opposition to the principles of the Constitution, which provides for color-blind equality under law. Yet many American institutions quickly adopted “diversity, equity, and inclusion” policies, such as discriminatory hiring practices and racially segregated employee groups, that are, correctly interpreted, illegal.
We have convened a symposium with six of the nation’s leading domestic-policy experts and asked them to consider how future policymakers might restore the principle of color-blind equality in government. Their recommendations are not comprehensive. But they would start the process—already begun, perhaps, by the Supreme Court’s ruling that race-based college admissions policies are unconstitutional—of restraining the forces of left-wing racialism and moving the country back toward a regime of individual merit and fair treatment under law.
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