The Justice is in the Details: Maximizing Equity and Justice in Public Policy

Updated April 12, 2022

Too often, policy design and policy structures exclude the people who have the most at stake. Both intentionally and unintentionally, public policy can reinforce and compound social and economic inequities, including systemic oppression, such as racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia, and ableism. Often unacknowledged, sometimes hidden, but very real barriers can prevent the most marginalized people from being supported by a policy, or even from providing input as the policy is being developed. The consequences of inequitable policy design can have huge effects, rippling down across families and communities for generations and intensifying existing inequities.

This explainer is intended to support organizers, advocates, and policymakers at the local, state, and federal levels as they weigh the impacts of policy. This document is not exhaustive and is meant as a starting point for consideration. Policymakers and advocates using this document should seek meaningful engagement with the communities at the center of the policies they are considering and ensure they engage with people of different races, classes, geographic backgrounds, and lived experiences to build effective, just and community-driven policy.

Policy is never neutral. Every policy that seeks to make a change can contribute to inequality if policymakers do not proactively build equity and justice into each step of its design. For example, the U.S. tax system’s joint return—in theory, a way to equalize the tax burden between households where two earners make $50,000 and households where one earner makes $100,000—has contributed to racial inequality. This is because jobs that make $100,000 are fundamentally different from those that make $50,000: they often provide different benefits, have different hours, and offer different flexibility for childcare responsibilities. People of color are far more likely to have these lower-paying, inflexible jobs. In a system shaped by white supremacy, anti-racist policy design requires intentional and systematic efforts to dismantle white supremacy, repair past harms and build in equity at every stage. In short: a policy may be framed as neutral on its surface, but people will experience it differently in regular and predictable ways because of systemic oppression. Instead, policy design must center the people who are most harmed under the current system, such as the “Black WomenBest” frame proposed by Janelle Jones in order to deliver the best results for all people.