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My Thoughts on the Equity and Equality

The word "equity" has several definitions. The first one that comes to mind is something like a stake in ownership of an asset or company. For example, if you own a home and have a mortgage, each payment you make builds equity in the house as you pay down the principal balance. You also build equity as the home increases in value over time.

Another definition, one that is newer to me, has become popular in certain social contexts, especially in higher education. According to the top internet search result, equity "refers to fairness and justice and is distinguished from equality: Whereas equality means providing the same to all, equity means recognizing that we do not all start from the same place and must acknowledge and make adjustments to imbalances. The process is ongoing, requiring us to identify and overcome intentional and unintentional barriers arising from bias or systemic structures."

Equity, according to this definition, is to be taken into account when creating policy. Proponents of equity-based policies recognize that that some people act like they hit a home run, when in reality they scored a run because they started at third base. With this in mind, we should aim to level the playing field in order to give equal opportunity of access to the various means of wealth creation, educational opportunities, etc.

Based on recent events, the definition of equity has clearly become mired in political muck. Despite this, I don't believe there would be many people against the idea of striving for equality in terms of starting position. This is a worthy goal and would serve to strengthen the foundations of the community.

There are critics who claim that the term equity is a code word to mean "equality of outcome". This is a valid concern, as it would be impossible to achieve without some sort of tyrannical enforcement.

Imagine a world where each person was born into an identical situation. In short order, probably within a matter of weeks, there would be large disparities in outcome due to various factors, including quantity and quality of effort, choices we make with regard to how we spend our time, our God-given talents, and the like.

I see this play out in my beginning language classes all the time. In a Spanish 101 class, the proficiency levels of learners begin to stratify within the first few weeks of class. This is just the natural order of things.

Since things naturally stratify quickly, critics argue against changing the system to give special treatment to any one particular group, and this is the crux of the matter in my opinion.

It's important to re-emphasize that "equality of outcome", while a valid concern, is not likely what is meant by proponents of equity-based policy.

Instead of the word equity, critics much prefer the word equality, which in this context would mean something like "equality of opportunity". To my ear, this sure sounds a lot like what is meant by equity as outlined above. Apparently we have much more in common than we'd care to admit.

By using these two different words to express virtually the same idea, it seems we are talking past each other. This is clearly a symptom of the political echo chambers our social media overlords have crafted as prisons, and that we have willingly entered.

Not that it matters much, as I am just one person, but I propose thinking about equity in a similar way to the definition in the first paragraph of this essay. We should strive to give people the opportunity to build equity (i.e. "ownership") in the community by helping people achieve an equality of opportunity.

The recent threats of political violence have no place in our community, and I strongly condemn any such actions. Furthermore, threats of this nature undermine any valid concerns you might have and push your political movement and ideology toward the fringe.

We are living in a community with diverse points of view. Your neighbor probably doesn't think exactly like you, and that's okay. But we can't let those differences of opinion tear us apart. We have to coexist peacefully, remembering that we are likely not as different from each other as it might seem on the internet.

In the wise words of Bill and Ted... Be excellent to each other.

- Andrew J. Snider