I’ve been a longtime subscriber to Harper’s magazine, in part, because I find the monthly Harper’s Index so revealing — at times humorous, but more often sobering. Most months, as part of a broad statistical portrait of life in the United States, the index includes statistics that spotlight our myriad inequities. Within the past year, for instance, the index has reminded us that whites and Asians own almost all of the assets in the U.S.; that even while a quarter of our students are Latino, the portion of children’s books about or by Latinos is a small fraction; that while women make up more than half of college graduates today, they compose less than 5 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs; and that transgendered people are disproportionately unemployed and highly at risk for suicide.
Of course, the information can be found in other sources as well. While we think of ours as a great nation, we fall short in so many ways when it comes to equity and justice — and to leveraging our nation’s diversity for the benefit of all. The poverty rate for African-American children is at an intolerably high 43 percent. Women continue to receive significantly lower pay than men in similar positions. The recent recession resulted in an unemployment rate for black men that is almost double the rate for white men. The income gap between the top 1 percent of wage earners and the rest continues to widen. In the most selective colleges and universities, white students dominate admissions. Meanwhile the test-score gap between the nation’s richest and poorest children increases steadily.
In his new book The Difference, Scott E. Page — professor of complex systems, political science, and economics at the University of Michigan — makes it clear that, when it comes to solving problems, “diversity trumps ability.” This is a mathematical truth, he writes, not a feel-good mantra. This is a useful view for schools that want to see themselves as high quality, cutting-edge, 21st century schools. But in order for us to get to the point where this is our default way of being — nurturing a broad range of diverse talent to foster our collective wisdom — we must open up the conversation about the inequities that hurt so many. We need to believe in our bones that addressing inequity is both the moral and the smart thing to do — and act accordingly, in and out of school.
On this front, I’ve seen so much good work in independent schools. But I know few people who are satisfied with how far, collectively, our community has come. Thus, the need to highlight these issues here and to dig deeper.
Michael Brosnan
Editor