Equity vs. Equality
These two concepts sound a lot alike, and some people
may use them interchangeably, but they are very different ideas.
Equality means everybody gets treated the same. They
are given the same things, or treatment. It’s “Everybody gets three
marshmallows in their hot cocoa.”
Equity means everybody gets what they need, and it
might not be the same. It’s “Billy, you get three regular marshmallows, but
Sally, you get sugar-free cocoa and marshmallows, because you’re diabetic.”
Sally needs something different than Billy, and that’s ok. Both Sally and Billy
get what’s right for them, though it’s not equal.
In this country, white people have had and still have
every advantage because our systems were made to benefit us, and have given us
a 400+ year head start over every other group of people. If we stress the idea
of equality, everybody gets the same thing, then white people will always be
ahead, because haven’t addressed how we have gotten so many advantages up to
now. If we stress equity, then we have the chance to even the playing field for
all of us. We, as white people, have to decide if that scares us too much to
work for it, or not.
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