THE POWER OF EQUITY
A few months ago, I came across this quote:
"Equality is the end goal, and Equity is the means to get there." The quote made me wonder about what the author meant by "to get there."
It felt confusing because I never thought of Equality as a destination or something that could stand independently without other forces holding it together.
I see Equity as the condition through which the idea of Equality remains possible, achievable, and maintainable.
The same applied to the saying, "We are all born equal."
I do not believe we are born equal; I think we are born different thought striving for connection through our commonalties.
Equity is the bridge between these two tension, or how we learn to honour our differences, and complexities while finding connection through what makes us all humans. And Discrimination is what happens when we fail to understand and embody that dynamic, or when our differences condition our inherent human value or access to opportunities.
I also struggle to see Equality as an end goal, especially if the Equality we aim for is in relation and comparison to norms we are challenging in the first place.
As a woman, I don't know if I aspire to be "equal" to the norm "men."
As a black person, I do not know if I aspire to be "equal" to the norm of "whiteness."
Finally, as an African, I do not know if I want to correspond to the norm "Western." I aspire to be my own person, to embrace my experience's complexity.
And that is, to me, the power of Equity. It opens possibilities and opportunities for everyone to exist, to connect through what we mutually share human without the need to sacrifice our individuality.
“Be you and the world will adjust.”
— Rachel-Diane EPOUPA
