Say More About That

7Equity

Equity is about fairness in the way people are treated. It considers the unique needs of each person or group when determining how to treat or support someone. Equity considers that everyone does not have the same starting place and may need something different depending on their unique circumstances.

Folks struggle with equity sometimes because it requires us to consider that someone may need something we don't and if they get it, it seems like they are getting “more” or “better” than everyone else. It is usually helpful if folks have a good understanding of privilege before we start talking about equity, because then people don't see equity as someone receiving “more or better” but will more likely see it as “fair.” Let's explore an example.

Imagine that you are the head of finance for a big tech corporation, and you are doing great – meeting and exceeding all the goals and projections consistently. Each year your team takes in interns and you hope to be able to extend job offers to them for employment after they graduate, but that depends on their performance over the 10‐week summer program. After a couple of years you notice that the Black students are not performing as well as other students so they do not receive as many job offers, although they come from the same kinds of quality learning programs. You are concerned about this and have your team start reviewing exit survey data from previous years, looking for trends, as you are planning the upcoming summer ...