Civil rights belong to individuals.
Every person deserves equal treatment under the law. Government should not discriminate in the name of ending discrimination.
America’s civil rights laws rest on a fundamental promise: Government should not treat people differently because of their race, sex, or other protected characteristics.
That promise matters.
Disparities exist. Discrimination exists. People do not begin life with the same circumstances, face the same challenges, or experience the same outcomes. Public policy should take real problems seriously and remove barriers that deny people equal rights and opportunities.
But institutionalizing new discrimination is not the solution to past or present discrimination.
Too often, public agencies pursue “equity” by sorting people into groups and treating them differently in an effort to produce more equal outcomes. Benefits, resources, opportunities, and burdens can be assigned according to race, sex, or other group identities rather than individual circumstances.
Good intentions do not make discrimination lawful. A worthy goal does not excuse unequal treatment. And a policy does not become successful simply because government labels it equitable.
Cascade Policy Institute believes civil rights protections should apply equally to everyone.
What Cascade believes
- Civil rights belong to individuals. Every person deserves equal protection and equal treatment under the law, regardless of race, sex, or other protected characteristics.
- Equality and equity are not the same thing. Equality protects equal rights and opportunities. Equity policies too often pursue predetermined group outcomes by treating individuals differently.
- Government should address actual need. Public policy should help people overcome real barriers and challenges based on individual circumstances, not assumptions attached to group identity.
- Discrimination does not cure discrimination. Government should not deny one person an opportunity, benefit, or protection in an attempt to improve outcomes for someone else.
- Civil rights laws should be enforced consistently. Public agencies must follow the Constitution and state and federal civil rights laws, including protections against discrimination based on race and sex.
- Results must be measured. Programs created to close gaps or improve outcomes should be evaluated by whether they actually help people, not by their intentions, labels, or budgets.
What better policy looks like
A better approach begins by treating every person as an individual.
It means protecting equal rights and equal opportunity for everyone. It means identifying the actual barriers people face and helping those in need without assigning rights or opportunities according to race or sex. It means enforcing civil rights laws consistently, even when doing so is politically uncomfortable.
It also means holding public agencies accountable. Policies should have clear goals. Results should be measured. Programs that fail to help the people they were created to serve should not be protected simply because their intentions were good.
Government should work to remove barriers, protect individual rights, and create equal opportunity. It should not divide people into competing groups and decide who deserves different treatment.
The answer to discrimination is equal treatment under the law, not a new system of discrimination with a different name.
