NC Peace Coalition sets quotas for board

According to an article published by YES! Weekly, the North Carolina Peace and Justice Coalition, a group set within the anti-war movement, has been recently organized.

In part of that organizing, the Coalition is electing a steering committee.

The steering committee will, however, have “mandated” diversity, in that the group has set a quota on who can be on the committee.

According to the article:

The coalition was set to elect its first steering committee by by e-mail or physical mail from Sunday through Saturday this week. The interim steering committee decided to set a quota system of 50 percent people of color, 50 percent women, 20 percent youth and students, and 20 percent lesbian, gay, bi and transgendered people for the new 20-member governing body.

Voting is open to any North Carolina resident who identifies as a peace and justice activist since the organization does not yet have a membership structure. Fifteen steering committee members will be chosen by election. To ensure the governing body reflects the mandated diversity, the newly elected steering committee will appoint the remaining five members.

Although I can appreciate where the Coalition is going, I just don’t know if this is the right or appropriate way in which to achieve diversity. There are two questions that keep rolling around in my head:

1. Should people mandate diversity or encourage and promote diversity?
2. Is the mandatory quota system truly representative of the people the steering committee will serve (i.e. is there really a 20% population of LGBT people in the peace movement when only approximately 5% of the American population is LGBT)?

Anybody have any thoughts?

Posted in LGBT, North Carolina, Politics |