Equality and equity are different, as it has been defined by various movements in the US. This definition has been adopted in mainstream usage for a while now. I’m surprised by your question, I feel this would be common knowledge to most people in western societies by this point. But I’m happy to answer if you are asking in good faith.
Equality is sort of the color-blind approach to treating people equally, with little to no regard for their race. It looks at their individual circumstances, not making broad assumptions based on their racial background. For the record, color blind doesn’t mean we dont seek to identify and correct racial issues, it just means we typically do so without creating race specific policies and instead apply the policies to everyone. My deep appreciation of equality as a fundamental principal is why I oppose equity and the strategic equivocation with which it is used.
Equity is contrasted to that by putting race front and center, and often above all else when making decisions on resource allocation. It’s how we get policies that broadly focus on racial groups. It’s not always advertised but equity is opposed to equality, so that specific races can be selected to receive benefits, or excluded from receiving benefits.
Speaking to the movement more broadly, In order to justify equity, anything that can be measured through the lens of race will be(deconstruction) and any difference in outcome will be flagged as racism, but only if white people are on the advantagous side.
Why is this bad? Don’t POCs need help?
They often do, but our racial based policies to correct them are often counterproductive, discriminatory, or even harmful. Our need based programs already disproportionately benefit them, and will continue to do so more if we bolster them. Here’s some quick examples of equitable efforts, just to give you an idea of how it manifests. These are extremely condensed, but I could pull links later if you want them.
Misguided attempt to remove sat scores from college admissions because of claims it’s inequitable.
Despite overwhelming evidence that helmets save lives, helmet laws were cut because some demographics didn’t wear them as often.
College students giving free covid masks to minorities but saying white people must pay.
There was an attempt to create a math framework that attempts to deconstruct mathematics into a racist construct.
When a professor did a comprehensive study of police violence and found no disparity in some aspects of policing, he was advised not to publish the results.
Equality and equity are different, as it has been defined by various movements in the US. This definition has been adopted in mainstream usage for a while now. I’m surprised by your question, I feel this would be common knowledge to most people in western societies by this point. But I’m happy to answer if you are asking in good faith.
Equality is sort of the color-blind approach to treating people equally, with little to no regard for their race. It looks at their individual circumstances, not making broad assumptions based on their racial background. For the record, color blind doesn’t mean we dont seek to identify and correct racial issues, it just means we typically do so without creating race specific policies and instead apply the policies to everyone. My deep appreciation of equality as a fundamental principal is why I oppose equity and the strategic equivocation with which it is used.
Equity is contrasted to that by putting race front and center, and often above all else when making decisions on resource allocation. It’s how we get policies that broadly focus on racial groups. It’s not always advertised but equity is opposed to equality, so that specific races can be selected to receive benefits, or excluded from receiving benefits.
Speaking to the movement more broadly, In order to justify equity, anything that can be measured through the lens of race will be(deconstruction) and any difference in outcome will be flagged as racism, but only if white people are on the advantagous side.
Why is this bad? Don’t POCs need help?
They often do, but our racial based policies to correct them are often counterproductive, discriminatory, or even harmful. Our need based programs already disproportionately benefit them, and will continue to do so more if we bolster them. Here’s some quick examples of equitable efforts, just to give you an idea of how it manifests. These are extremely condensed, but I could pull links later if you want them.