By the year 2025, our students of color will be in the majority in Oregon’s public schools. Though Oregon’s history has been majority white, its future is not.  Many of the problems we face – poverty, violence, blocked opportunity, poor health, and high teen suicide rates – arise from racism, antisemitism, and anti-LGBTQ+ attitudes and actions. Sexism still pervades our institutions, resulting in gender gaps in pay, in leadership, and in health outcomes, to name a few.

 

Furthermore, the Trump Administration’s illegal and immoral treatment of refugee and immigrant families is shameful and diminishes us all.

 

The intersectionality of these issues undergirds all of the other issues Oregonians confront. Now is the time to interrupt bigotry, step up to be counted, rebalance the playing fields, and make sure our institutions reflect and look like the people they serve.

 

Solutions to the DEI challenge must be grounded in principles of equality for all, better supports for vulnerable people, and attention to the inter-relationship of gender, migrant, disability, elder, LGBTQ+, economic, and worker justice issues. By weaving the principles of DEI into solutions to a wide range of problems impacting our communities, we can embed our values in a way that has greater reach and less isolation.