equity.

hey. I just wanted to do a quick post to talk about the difference between equity and equality.

 A lot of social justice folks talk about equality.

With equality, we're saying everyone has the same opportunities, and is treated the same as everyone else. 

Which is great! But let me give you a different way to think about it.

If a person is diagnosed with cancer, and needs to get radiation therapy, equality says he should be able to get the treatment he needs. The thing is, not everyone needs to get radiation therapy. If I fall and break my arm, I should be able to go and get a cast, but not everyone needs a cast on their arm. 

Have you ever heard the argument, if you don't like gay marriage, don't get one? Its the same thing. If you're gay and want to get married, you should be able to, but not everyone needs to marry someone of the same sex. 

Equity says, everyone should be able to get what they need. If you break your arm, you get a cast. If you want to go to college but don't have the money, you'll get some help. Everyone gets what they need, because they need it. Not just because they have the money, a certain skin tone, etc. 

I recently heard an argument about correct definitions of terms. There are a lot of terms we don't often use the full, correct definition for, but many people use a similar, shared definition. The example used was using the term racism, when you may actually mean prejudice based on race. Equality is one of those words.

A lot of people use the term equality, but what they probably mean, is equity. I still use equality in a lot of conversations, but when the time is right, I'll break out the more accurate term, equity.

Okay, that wasn't so quick. But you learned something important! Hooray!