Who is talking about equity vs equality?
Asked by
JLeslie (
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June 30th, 2022
from iPhone
Yesterday I was in a discussion about equity, and the person who brought up the topic compared it to equality. My guess is equity is a liberal concept, but I couldn’t help think about the conservatives I know who over the years have said to me people aren’t equal. They said it in the context of communists treat everyone equally. I felt at the time it was a subtle part of their rhetoric against Democratic candidates who often talk about equality in the country. I’m in the US.
Straighten me out. Am I overthinking?
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4 Answers
Well, I would argue people here are treated equal as well, or at least in a perfect world we would be, except we have more opportunities to learn more & get better jobs, make more money than other people, & become a higher class, unlike communist countries. I don’t know, it’s a weird thing to think about and is hard not to overthink.
@Austin_ we have more opportunities to learn more & get better jobs If you are a white male.
The term “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.
@zenvelo hence why I said in a perfect world.
“Equity” is a term used in law, and in finance.
You’re correct that only liberals use “equity” in some political or social sense, and as far as I can tell, it’s basically to avoid using the terrible far-leftist term “equality”, which means to force everyone to be the same. /sarcasm
I’d recommend reading Kurt Vonnegut’s short story, Harrison Bergeron, which parodies the conservative perception of left-wing egalitarianism and equality. Ironically, conservatives loved it thinking it was a satire of the left.
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