Black people, as well as whites, have struggled for years with dual concepts requiring vastly different approaches for social justice: equality and equity.
I recently heard a heralded, long-time activist admit that while we’ve fought fiercely for equality — believing it would right the wrongs of racism and discrimination in one fell swoop — the thinking was that equity would be a natural outcome of the battle. He went on to say that a two-pronged approach would have been more effective in achieving the goals of social justice and economic equity.
The truth is equality and equity are not the same, and in practice, they are not even that close.
Equality means each individual or group receives the same resources or opportunities. Equity recognizes that each person or group has different circumstances and allocates the resources and opportunities accordingly, so everyone reaches an equal outcome.