Equity Before Equality
1 changes, most recent 27 days ago
Paragraph 1 changes
In Aristotle's Rhetoric, it states, “Equity is the idea of justice which contravenes the written law.”
This reveals how equity is a controversial idea in terms of justice.
People often assume that equity and equality are the same because they are used in similar contexts.
However, there is a difference between being treated equally and being treated fairly.
This distinction can be explained when defining social justice.
Personally, social justice means everyone getting what they deserve.
Equality would mean treating everyone the same, regardless of what their circumstances are, while equity takes into account people’s experiences and needs.
The debate of equity vs. equality can be helpful in understanding social justice categories.
Racial injustice and feminism are some examples of social justice categories in which people usually confuse equity and equality.
When we don’t understand the difference between equality and equity, we overlook the struggles and troubling circumstances that other people face.
Equity is more convenient in achieving true social justice, as it considers a person's situation, while equality focuses on treating everyone the same.
Being equitable when discussing racial issues means recognizing people of color's needs and treating them based on those needs. Equality in this sense would be treating people of color the same as White people, which doesn’t recognize the hardships that people of color have to face. As a person of color, I recognize the difference in privilege between White people and myself. I often confront harmful racial stereotypes that affect my self-esteem. If we were to ignore this problem, we would fail to realize racial injustice. This is why equity, and not just equality, is crucial when talking about racial issues. Equity involves addressing how damaging these racial stereotypes are. According to the United Way NCA, “understanding the key differences between racial equity and equality is important to dismantling systemic racism and fostering a community that is inclusive for everyone.” By learning the difference between equality and equity, it allows us to become aware of the racial injustice in our world. Once we listen to people of color and acknowledge their concerns, we advance in achieving racial justice.
Social justice for women means gaining what we want and require. When people hear our demands and understand why we need them, women’s rights are valued. Equality assumes that we all start at the same place and experience the same challenges. Equality for women would not allow people to confront the troubling inequalities that do exist. Equity, on the other hand, considers the different types of support that are needed to acquire fairness. Women are unable to be given the same opportunities as men because people don’t want to listen to them. Women have less control over their bodies, their careers, and their needs. In the book, When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago, she is often under the control of men as they take advantage of her innocence. The different gender roles portrayed in the book demonstrate how men will never be able to undergo what Esmeralda had to go through. Since they don’t have the same experience, men and women aren’t positioned together at the same place. As a woman, I won’t be able to obtain the same opportunities as men. For equity to work, that means that women would need to have increasing chances to get the same opportunities as men. Being a woman in the world also means that I am unable to have the option to protect myself. Equity for women would mean that we would have power in what we want and what we need. This is why women voice their opinions and why people need to listen. We can help achieve equity for women when we hear their thoughts and realize the distance between the treatment of men and women.
Listening and understanding are huge contributions to equity. When we listen to people’s concerns about social injustice, it lets us recognize the problems in our society. It also inspires us to talk to others about it so that they can listen and understand as well. It creates this cycle of people speaking, listening, and understanding. Fairness is important to note when talking about equity as it allows proper justice to be taken. This can be seen in the book, Lord of the Flies by William Goulding. In the Lord of the Flies, the characters use a conch as a symbol for fairness as they take turns using the conch to speak. Throughout the book, the conch becomes less relevant. This is due to the characters not listening and acknowledging each other’s differing thoughts. The characters soon lose sense of society as they mistreat other characters and even commit murder. This symbolizes how fairness is lost as the characters turn to violence for justice rather than fairness. This shows how without fairness, justice becomes savage. Equity shows the importance of justice in a fair sense.
Social justice can be defined by understanding the difference between equity and equality. Equality gives everyone the same treatment. Equity allows people to be given what they deserve. With social justice topics, such as racial injustice and feminism, equity can be seen to be more useful than equality when talking about justice. Equity for people of color would be being heard and accepting their feelings. For women, equity allows them to voice their rights and be given opportunities to obtain those rights. When people who feel as though they’ve been hurt speak out about their mistreatment, listening and calling out their mistreatment helps promote equity in our community.
on the uploaded document.
0 General Document comments
0 Sentence and Paragraph comments
0 Image and Video comments
New Conversation
The transition from the quote into your topic was very good. It was a good set up and eases the reader into your essay. I also enjoy how to chose a unique perspective while still staying on topic
New Conversation
Hide Full Comment
New Conversation
This paragraph really connected to me on how many people do turn to violence when the situation can’t call for fairness.I would like to add how this happens everywhere and can’t be resolved because every human and their thoughts are different.
New Conversation
Hide Full Comment
General Document Comments 0
I enjoyed the way this essay outlined social justice. The idea of equity versus equality allowed me to develop a new perspective. Learning the way that equity and equality can go hand in hand and how we can use it to improve our thinking intrigued me. All in all, this piece was very informative and well-explained.
New Conversation
Hide Full Comment
I will admit, I had fallen victim to not knowing the difference between equity and equality. Before, I found that the difference between equity and equality were almost nothing. However, that isn’t true. Even if the difference between the equaity and equality is small, they can shape things in completely different ways. You used the example of equality being the idea of treating people the same, regardless of their race and gender. However, equity is the idea of everyone being treated based on the their needs. Reading this part made me think about how people like me fall victim into thinking they’re the same and we only need one in society. Your essay had helped me understand the difference between these two terms, and I think it could also help a lot of other people to see the difference.
New Conversation
Hide Full Comment
New Conversation
I liked how you touched on the difference between equity and equality. Many people associate social justice with equality when it is really equity that is needed in our world. For example: if a person with an amputated leg and a person with two legs both get a prosthetic leg, that is an example of equality, and we know that they both do not need it. However, if you give the prosthetic leg to just the person with an amputated leg,this is an example of equity, which is what we need in the real world.
New Conversation
Hide Full Comment
This essay really gives a clear understandment on the difference of equity and equality while still regrading the topic of social justice. That the misleading idea that equality is connected more with social justice rather than equity but in reality it being vise versa.
New Conversation
Hide Full Comment