A broad revolution is underway in the United States as traditional color-blind standards used to provide opportunity are being rejected by schools, corporations, and governments, Richard Bernstein reports for RealClearInvestigations. He examines the wide and rapid post-George Floyd adoption of quotas based on race and gender – and assesses the possible consequences:

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• On just his sixth day in office, President Biden signaled an end to the nation’s principle of equality for all — i.e., treating everybody the same — by signing an executive order decreeing the goal of “racial equity” across the government.
• Many top universities recently jettisoned a seemingly neutral measure – standardized test scores – to give minorities a better shot at admissions.
• Hewlett-Packard, with 50,000 employees worldwide, has decreed that by 2030 half of its leadership positions and more than 30% of its technicians and engineers have to be women and that the number of minorities should “meet or exceed” their representation in the tech workforce.
• United Airlines announced that half its 5,000 trainee pilots between now and 2030 will be women or people of color.
• And the American Medical Association announced a new “strategic plan” for racial equity — describing meritocracy and treating everyone the same as “malignant narratives.”
• Troubling practical and moral questions abound: How to meet the ambitious goals of diversity recruitment? And is this fair?
• To say that the concept of “best” needs to be redefined in racial terms is already a significant departure, Bernstein writes. But proponents go beyond that, casting meritocracy as a racist stratagem — a historic sea change.

the full article can be read here.