Have you noticed that the term “equality” has been replaced or at least supplemented by its near-doppelganger, “equity,” and that some people use these terms interchangeably? You may have noticed that these terms are not the same. If you have, you are certainly correct.
Equality is a quintessential American value, for even during the nascent stages of the American Revolution our founders boldly declared that “all men are created equal.” American movements since then, like the Women’s Suffrage and Civil Rights Movement, used this statement to justify the expansion of the rights of citizenship. These and other activists wanted the same status as their fellow citizens and did not seek to degrade those who had the rights they sought.
Equity is qualitatively different. Instead of elevating everyone to the same level of rights, expanding the benefits of citizenship, and removing barriers to allow all individuals to reach new heights, equity focuses on creating equal outcomes. These outcomes include positive things like level of education, wealth, home ownership, and prestigious occupations as well as negative things like poverty, rate of criminality, and poorer health, to name a few.
Those who champion equity believe that any differences across groups is evidence that the political, economic, and social systems are discriminatory and a result of past racism, sexism, etc. They believe that the way to right these wrongs of the past and present is to re-rig the scales so that minority groups have outcomes more comparable to majority groups. It isn’t enough that all groups have the same access to opportunities in so far as all forms of identity-based discrimination has been criminalized in the U.S. for decades. And they think that affirmative action policies of the late 20th century have been insufficient because of the long history of oppression certain groups faced and continue to face.
To be clear, American history is riddled with several examples of widespread, group-based discrimination that were unequivocally evil, such as slavery, Jim Crow, the treatment of Native Americans, Asian immigrants, and other groups. I acknowledge these historical facts and also recognize that legal and social discrimination can have a lasting impact on affected groups even after explicit discrimination ends.
I also understand that social scientists like myself are required to explore the effects of multiple variables, consider the nuances of data and facts, and test alternative explanations. Equity-based policies ignore all of this and assume that disparities in group outcomes is the result of discrimination, and the correlation between the two must mean that one causes the other. There are several problems with this line of thinking. First, the actual data does not support the discrimination theory as the sole explanation for group-based disparities. For example, Asian Americans outperform white Americans in several arenas like education and ability to get a home loan even though Asian Americans experienced more discrimination than white Americans. Also, black immigrants from places like the Caribbean tend to do better than native born black Americans, so race alone cannot be a significant driver of these differences in outcomes.
Secondly, this group-based analysis ignores the wide range of individual variation within groups. While it is true that on average white Americans make more money than black Americans, it is also true that roughly 39% of welfare recipients are white Americans and about 40% are black Americans. Proportionately there is a larger share of the black community on welfare than the white community, and more black Americans live below the poverty line than white Americans. The point, however, is that these group-based averages do not account for the wide range of data and end up ignoring other facts like the numerous highly successful and wealthy black Americans as well as impoverished white Americans.
Thirdly, calls for equity diminish the remarkable gains that minority groups have made in this country. Now that’s not to say that racists, sexists, and other people don’t exist in America; unfortunately, those who hate certain people solely because of those people’s identities will always exist in democratic societies. The good news is that they have become an insignificant minority, and their views are no longer enshrined in law and are rarely practiced in American social life. We still have not arrived at perfect equality, but we have gotten markedly closer. Just think back to the 1950s and 1960s when people of color we barred from lunch counters, restaurants, and universities. Now we all walk into Starbucks or a classroom and see people of all races and creeds, and that’s completely normal. Heroic activists made that possible, so let’s not dismiss their courageous sacrifices and these remarkable gains because there is still some work to do.
Finally, creating different standards to equalize outcomes for different groups based on these group averages is quite frankly insulting to everyone. These racialized standards tell black Americans and Hispanic/ Latin Americans that they are unable to do what white and Asian Americans are capable of, which is actually racist. Some call this the “soft bigotry of low expectations,” which I think is the best way to think of it. What is more, these policies tell white and Asian Americans that their success is far more about their skin color than their work ethic or character.
Ironically, these new racialized standards designed with equity as their guiding principle not only create new systems of race-based discrimination, but also rely on the institutions that the woke find irredeemably and systemically racist to implement them.
So, what does equity look like? It looks like different admissions standards for academic programs so more black students can be accepted while fewer Asian and white students with higher test scores become ineligible. It looks like job postings that claim that the hiring institutions are both equal opportunity employers but want women and people of color in particular to apply. It looks like certain students getting special treatment because of the color of their skin. It looks like some businesses owned by minorities getting perks and government money while businesses owned by white men are ineligible.
In short, equity is the antithesis to equality. Even though it sounds good, equity can be summed up with that famous line from Star Wars. “It’s a trap!”