Equity Observer

Ellen McGirt|Essays

College administrators have failed a basic leadership test

The sit-in is not a new protest tactic on college campuses. Why were the pro-Palestinian encampments such a threat?

Ellen McGirt|Essays

Lessons learned from a "Freedom Seder"

This version of the Passover story is a model of inclusion.

Ellen McGirt|Essays

Something to celebrate on Tax Day

In addition to making life easier for all eligible taxpayers, a new tool from the IRS offers the added benefit of making things better for some of the most vulnerable.

Ellen McGirt|Essays

A Nobel Prize-winning economist is asking new questions about inequality

A Nobel Prize-winning economist asks powerful questions about markets, power, and inequality. What if his field has been the problem all along?

Ellen McGirt|Essays

The advertising industry has work to do

Troubling testimony from Black talent in advertising shows an industry struggling with inclusion.

Ellen McGirt|Essays

Can AI wrest us from the grip of conspiracy theories?

AI might have the patience, knowledge — and the respect — to help people with deep and wrong convictions change their minds.

Ellen McGirt|Essays

Insights from the largest-ever survey of trans people

Some 92,000 people completed the largest and most thorough survey of trans and non-binary people ever fielded.

Ellen McGirt|Essays

Navigating the fraught new reality of DEI

Despite the backlash, DEI work remains popular and necessary.

L’Oreal Thompson Payton|Profiles

Celebrating Black History, Joy, and Creativity Through the Art of Flowers

Ellen McGirt|Essays

It’s Time to Find Your People

Announcing Equity Observer, Design Observer’s new editorial vertical and newsletter focused on the people and ideas redesigning the world for good.

Delaney Rebernik|Education

Marshall “Mr. P” Pollard and The Creative School

Empowering DC’s young “queens and kings” to reclaim health and wealth for their community by designing alternatives to an education system that’s failing Black and brown kids