How are you defining inequity? In terms of income? Political rights?
Basically, if the government did something wrong, I believe later governments are justified to fix it. For example, housing policy throughout the 20th century (since the New Deal with the creation of the Federal Housing Administration and Homeowner's Loan Corporation) has been largely racially biased. After WWII, white people were given preferential treatment in receiving homes at low interest rates, which over time, allowed them to build equity. Minorities on the other hand did not receive these opportunities and were instead placed in communities arbitrarily labelled as not being worth as much as the white peoples' homes. This is a major reason why there is a huge housing and wealth gap between minorities and whites. If a solution were to be left to a free market, de facto segregation would most likely continue because traditional customs and rules would be followed. Instead, its better for government to work towards increased integration, and as a result, minorities can "catch up" in the long-term.
So basically if the government screws up, its up to the government to fix it.
I have an entire essay on this topic if you would like it. I keep meaning to send it to other people lol
This is, essentially, what I believe
should be the case. (And yes, do send me that essay, I'm sure it will be very helpful when I discuss this with others)
The central government should be responsible for ensuring a small set of basic human rights that a vast majority of people can agree on. Past that, I think that if there are significant issues with inequality, they should be handled at the local level. What works for Grand Rapids might not work for Detroit, and vice versa. Moreover, if there is a Grand Rapids problem, it should be handled by the people of Grand Rapids and the government they elected; likewise, if there is a Detroit problem, it should be handled by the people of Detroit and the government they elected.
This is fair enough in your model of society that you've set up. The problem is, what ensures that local governments will take the action necessary to rectify that inequity? I assume you'll want to run with the democratic election model - in that case, how are we to assure that each state will vote in local governments that address such situations, and how can we be sure that said elected government
will address the situation? From what I know about the
current political climate, I can assure you that it'd probably be a far more vicious fight than it already is.
Poverty is poverty; I think if there's a poverty problem, then that should be addressed regardless of peoples' skin color. But I think it should be a local government issue unless there are basic human rights violations going on.
Yes, you're right, it
should be addressed without regards to race, but that assumes that there are equal numbers of poverty across all races. This isn't the truth - People of Color carry far more burden from poverty than white people (sources:
1 2 3), but it's often hard to reduce poverty for People of Color because their communities have been heavily segregated as a result of slavery and housing discrimination, to the point where the resources that would normally help lift people out of poverty (jobs, education) are often of poorer-quality than the resources for white people in poverty.
Black mobility in society is low, but as we know from our current political climate, there's a lot more people who feel that a government addressing the specific problem of black poverty is discrimination against whites. So how can we ensure that all local governments would take the necessary steps to address the specific issue of black poverty or any pertinent, harmful minority issue when, in many places, it would be the larger majority population possibly making the decisions for smaller minority populations? Would you consider this specific situation "basic human rights" covered by the central government?
(Note that I'm not trying to turn this into a conversation about race or racial economic issues - I'm pitting your suggested government format against a real life situations so we can explore it further. This is by no means a conversation about race explicitly)