Equity

Equity and Equality

While equity means treating people justly, equality means treating all people the same. Many social movements have expressed a desire for equality between privileged and oppressed groups as a way to eradicate the discrimination faced by the marginalized (e.g., the Women’s Rights movement seeking equal treatment for women and men, or the Civil Rights movement campaigning for Black individuals to have the same rights as white individuals in the United States). While striving for equality seems admirable on the surface, it does not eliminate the barriers marginalized people have faced for centuries. For example, if the Women’s Rights movement truly led to equal treatment between (cisgender) men and women, there would still be inequality, oppression, and further marginalization of women with intersecting identities such as transgender, poor, Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC), fat, neuro-emergent, or nonnative English-speaking women. In this example, the gender equality sought by the original women’s rights activists only ensures equal rights for some (i.e., privileged) women. Equity for individuals facing marginalization in society because of their gender or gender identity would require breaking down the systems and institutions that perpetuate the white, cisgender, heterosexual male normativity within the patriarchy. In essence, gender equity would not mean that people of all genders have equal access to holding power above others in society; rather, it involves the complete deconstruction of the institutions that enable one group to hold power over another.

Equity is a philosophy and action of ensuring access to the support that individuals need to navigate societal systems. Understanding the root cause of the issues and barriers facing people is the first step toward achieving equity. For example, many colleges and universities have put together or ramped up their diversity and inclusion committees in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement and other recent social justice movements with the goal of creating a safe learning or working environment for the BIPOC students, faculty, and staff. These committees often promise to treat all students, faculty, and staff equally regardless of racial identity, but that does not eliminate the barriers faced by students of color in their college experiences. Racial equity on college campuses could mean eliminating admissions requirements for standardized tests like the ACT or SAT and allowing the use of specific speech characteristics in personal essays, such as Black Vernacular English. Given the different dialects of English spoken in different communities [Page 522]and the history of racism in standardized testing, these changes would allow for more equitable treatment of applications. In addition, it is important for marginalized students to have others from their community to ensure a supportive learning environment, so racial equity in this case would mean increasing the number of BIPOC people on campus, such as staff, faculty, and administrators. In this example, equity for those marginalized by their racial identity means that white people take up less space and opportunities (in the classroom, on committees, in administrative roles) in higher education to allow BIPOC individuals to make more decisions about their own environment. Government-subsidized housing and groceries are often considered equitable as they allow for all individuals to have access to housing and food security regardless of income.

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