Equity
What you hear
Fairness. Everyone treated the same, everyone gets a fair shot. It sounds like a warmer word for equality.
The common meaning. This is the cover the redefinition travels under.
What they mean by it
In this literature equity does not mean equal treatment. It means equal outcomes, measured by group. The movement took the word up in place of equal opportunity for that reason, and six books across thirty years say so.
At its simplest, equity means redress: giving more to the less advantaged.
In its simplest form, equity is taken to mean ‘redress’, that is, giving more to the less advantaged.
John Smyth (ed.), A Socially Critical View of the Self-Managing School, The Falmer Press, 1993, Chapter 9, on ethical frameworks in educational administration
Equity means groups ending up in the same place.
Racial equity is when two or more racial groups are standing on a relatively equal footing.
Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist, One World (Random House), 2019, Chapter 2, "Definitions"
Any gap between groups is the injustice, whatever caused it.
Racial inequity is when two or more racial groups are not standing on approximately equal footing.
Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist, One World (Random House), 2019, Chapter 2, "Definitions", the inequity sentence
Operationally it means parity: every group matching the best-performing group.
The goal of the “equity as parity” standard is that all racial/ethnic groups achieve an outcome rate equal to that of the highest-performing group.
Tia Brown McNair, From Equity Talk to Equity Walk: Expanding Practitioner Knowledge for Racial Justice in Higher Education, Jossey-Bass (Wiley), 2020, Chapter 3, "Using and Communicating Data as a Tool to Advance Equity"
They chose the word because it is not equal opportunity.
Employment equity, a Canadian term, is used rather than equal opportunity because it avoids the liberal associations of the latter. It is in this sense stronger, focusing on outcomes
Barbara Townley, Reframing Human Resource Management: Power, Ethics and the Subject at Work, Sage, 1994, Chapter 6, note 17, on employment equity
A debt owed, not a request: corrective justice.
Equity is a means of corrective justice (McPherson 2015) for the educational debt (Ladson-Billings 2006) owed to the descendants of enslaved people and other minoritized populations willfully excluded from higher education.
Tia Brown McNair, From Equity Talk to Equity Walk: Expanding Practitioner Knowledge for Racial Justice in Higher Education, Jossey-Bass (Wiley), 2020, Chapter 2, on the principles of racial equity
The standard is equality as a fact and as a result, and it is not new.
We seek not just legal equity but human ability, not just equality as a right and a theory but equality as a fact and equality as a result.
Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, Nation Books, 2016, Chapter 30, on Johnson’s 1965 Howard University address
In practice it can mean some people’s votes counting for more than others.
the only possibility for an equitable chance at social benefits and fair political representation might be for minority votes to count for more than their actual numbers
Edward Taylor, Foundations of Critical Race Theory in Education, Routledge, 3rd edition, 2023, Ladson-Billings, "Just What Is Critical Race Theory", on Guinier
Every policy is either racist or antiracist; neutral does not exist.
There is no such thing as a nonracist or race-neutral policy. Every policy in every institution in every community in every nation is producing or sustaining either racial inequity or equity between racial groups.
Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist, One World (Random House), 2019, Chapter 2, "Definitions", on policy
Getting there requires discrimination, on purpose, from now on.
The only remedy to racist discrimination is antiracist discrimination. The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.
Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist, One World (Random House), 2019, Chapter 2, "Definitions", on discrimination
And the circle closes on capitalism.
Capitalism is essentially racist; racism is essentially capitalist.
Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist, One World (Random House), 2019, Chapter 13, "Class"
The plain lines are the archive’s. The words under each are theirs, read in the edition named.
Documented
In plain English
Sameness of result, tallied by racial group, rather than fairness of treatment. The working standard is parity: every group posting the same outcome rate as the best-performing group, and any shortfall counts as a gap to close. Under this definition a rule applied the same way to everyone can still be racist if the scoreboard comes out uneven. The remedy is to treat people differently until it does not. Whoever runs the institution decides which gaps count and when equity has arrived.
The archive’s reading. The definition above is the citable one.
Assessed
Why it works
The word does the smuggling, and the record shows they picked it for that. They took up equity in place of equal opportunity because, in their own account, it avoids the older term's liberal associations and focuses on outcomes instead. You still hear fairness and nod. What you have agreed to is parity scored by group, with open discrimination as the corrective. Under the older meaning of fairness, that is the thing you thought you opposed. The binary removes the exit: apply a rule the same way to everyone, and the moment the scoreboard tilts, the rule is racist. Their own auditors note that the word moves through official papers with no definition attached. That is no defect in the term; it is the whole of its usefulness.
Assessed
The claims ledger
The citable statements behind this term, each tied to the movement source filed in the Vault.
In How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi defines racial equity as two or more racial groups standing on a relatively equal footing, measured by outcomes such as home ownership rates.
- How to Be an AntiracistOne World (Random House), New York
{"offset":26207}
In A Socially Critical View of the Self-Managing School, equity in its simplest form is taken to mean redress: giving more to the less advantaged.
- A Socially Critical View of the Self-Managing SchoolThe Falmer Press, London
{"offset":462171}
Kendi defines racial inequity as two or more racial groups not standing on approximately equal footing.
- How to Be an AntiracistOne World (Random House), New York
{"offset":26207}
From Equity Talk to Equity Walk operationalises equity as parity in representation and outcomes: every racial group achieving an outcome rate equal to that of the highest-performing group, with no disparities in institutional outcomes.
- From Equity Talk to Equity Walk: Expanding Practitioner Knowledge for Racial Justice in Higher EducationJossey-Bass (Wiley), Hoboken
{"offset":112214}
Townley records that "employment equity" is used rather than "equal opportunity" precisely because it avoids the liberal associations of the older term and focuses on outcomes instead.
{"offset":532720}
From Equity Talk to Equity Walk premises racial equity on the principle that it is a means of corrective justice for an educational debt owed to the descendants of enslaved people and other minoritized populations.
- From Equity Talk to Equity Walk: Expanding Practitioner Knowledge for Racial Justice in Higher EducationJossey-Bass (Wiley), Hoboken
{"offset":54382}
Kendi quotes Johnson’s 1965 Howard address seeking equality as a fact and as a result rather than as a right and a theory, and calls the surrounding passage quite possibly the most antiracist avowal ever uttered by a US president.
- Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in AmericaNation Books, New York
{"offset":79552}
Foundations of Critical Race Theory in Education summarises Guinier as holding that an equitable chance at social benefits and fair representation might require minority votes to count for more than their actual numbers.
- Foundations of Critical Race Theory in EducationRoutledge, New York
Ladson-Billings, "Just What Is Critical Race Theory", on Guinier
Kendi holds that there is no nonracist or race-neutral policy: every policy everywhere produces or sustains either racial inequity or equity.
- How to Be an AntiracistOne World (Random House), New York
{"offset":28655}
Kendi holds that the only remedy to racist discrimination is antiracist discrimination: past discrimination is remedied by present discrimination and present by future.
- How to Be an AntiracistOne World (Random House), New York
{"offset":28655}
Kendi holds that capitalism is essentially racist and racism essentially capitalist, birthed together and destined to die together.
- How to Be an AntiracistOne World (Random House), New York
{"offset":313546}
Plain English for “Equity”: Sameness of result, tallied by racial group, rather than fairness of treatment. The workin...
- How to Be an AntiracistOne World (Random House), New York
{"offset":26207}
Bensimon, reviewing the AAC&U project reports, found that the word equity appeared in every campus report but was often left undefined and unconnected to racial justice.
- From Equity Talk to Equity Walk: Expanding Practitioner Knowledge for Racial Justice in Higher EducationJossey-Bass (Wiley), Hoboken
{"offset":67205}
Kendi holds that to love capitalism is to end up loving racism and vice versa: the two are conjoined twins.
- How to Be an AntiracistOne World (Random House), New York
{"offset":313546}
The evidence file
Corroboration beyond the ledger. Each passage was read in the edition named, not in a search result.
Exhibit A · Their own auditor, on the word travelling undefined
the word equity was included in all of the campuses’ reports but often was left undefined and unconnected to racial justice
Source: Tia Brown McNair, From Equity Talk to Equity Walk: Expanding Practitioner Knowledge for Racial Justice in Higher Education, Jossey-Bass (Wiley), 2020, Chapter 2, on the AAC&U project reports
The people running the program concede the room's thesis here. The word arrives everywhere, does its work, and nobody defines it where it lands. Their remedy is not to drop it but to pin it to populations and outcomes, which is the redefinition stated as policy.
Exhibit B · The conjoined twins
To love capitalism is to end up loving racism. To love racism is to end up loving capitalism. The conjoined twins are two sides of the same destructive body.
Source: Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist, One World (Random House), 2019, Chapter 13, "Class", on capitalism and racism
The most-assigned antiracism book in the country states the equation the rest of this codebook documents. Kendi carries a reader who accepted equity as fairness, in the same book, to the doorstep of capitalism.