[cabbagesauce]

As a white european dude, who's ancestors never oppressed anyone, rather were oppressed by other white dudes through history. Can you ELI5 why the DEI exists and what problems does it solve, from but from a perspective of someone of my position?

Not a troll-bait question, but I sincerely try to comprehend this as to me the mere term people of color is the uttermost racist label imaginable. Also, that presumes I'm from people of no-color...

[hedgehog]

In the US discrimination based on skin color is widespread and goes back to before the country's founding, and access to opportunities is very uneven based on wealth. The PoC term is a reflection of the general pattern of discrimination as practiced here. This situation both has strong inertia (easier to get access to opportunity if you have relatively wealthy parents and/or blend in with wealthier people who tend to be white) and is also reinforced by vested interests (demonizing Latinos and Asian immigration for taking jobs helps keep immigration regulations tight and labor costs down). DEI initiatives are one take on how to get the system to correct towards giving everyone a fair shot.

[ianhawes]

Discrimination in the US is based on socioeconomic status just as much as race.

[hedgehog]

There are both, and they are related. For example family wealth and wealth accumulation in the US is weighted heavily to home ownership and appreciation, the GI bill that powered a great deal of home purchases was structured to exclude blacks, and the combination of those facts shapes the distribution of wealth today. Expensive neighborhoods tend to have better public schools, the quality of that schooling is a lifelong advantage, yet redlining was only banned around 50 years ago. This directly affected the cohort of people in their 60s who are still part of the work force. Overall social mobility in the US is pretty poor compared to other wealthy countries but I'm not sure if there is any rigorous work to attribute causes.

[goatlover]

There's also trailer parks, Appalachia and dying mid-western towns. I'm guessing a majority of them don't have access to better public schools. Sounds more of a problem of how public schools are funded than structural racism, which benefits richer districts. This is a good example of a class issue, since there's no shortage of poorer white folks as well. Yes, there's a smaller percentage of them, but also a larger overall number (5.3 million non-Hispanic white children in 2019 compared to 4.1 million black).

https://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/tables/44-children-in-...