… And Justice for All!
Equality or Equity
In my work life I often meet with people from the Public Health arena. I’m intensely jealous of the information they have at their fingertips, because… as you know… I’m autistic and if you’ve read my blog entries, you’ll know how I love “information”. But that’s not what this entry is about.
One of the aspects we work closely together on is health inequalities. I won’t bore you with the detail (or rather I’ll spare you the info dump) but suffice to say this is an area which appeals to my internal social justice warrior. Especially when it comes to those aspects over which people have no personal control — our characteristics. We are simply born a certain way — that can be race, cognitive ability, gender, sexuality or in my case AuDHD. We are who we are.
It was whilst discussing this that we got onto a favourite bug bear of mine — the drive for equality and how it’s often misunderstood.
Equality means that individuals, or groups of people, are given the same resources or opportunities.
That is not only unrealistic but also a bogus aim. It protects the already privileged and does nothing to help those who are disadvantaged by society. It simply perpetuates the status quo with a smoke and mirrors approach to social reform. “Hey look, you can go to Oxbridge too, we’ve removed the colour/gender/disability bar”. That’s horseshit. Barriers still exist leading up to exercising our right to those opportunities — barriers such as education, crime rates, housing, income, institutional racism, ableism etc.
We don’t need opportunity, we need outcomes. What we need is equity.
One aspect of being autistic is that I really do believe in “The Rules”. It doesn’t matter if they are the secret unwritten social ones that I’ve learned through observation, or those in the statute books which are supposed to ensure justice prevails across society. I take great interest in current affairs; I know that my politics are more to the left and I think that “The Rules” are partly why. “The Rules” should lead to a simple aim — making the world a better place. One would think that’s what we all want.
The real problem with this belief is that “The Rules” have been written by those with power, money, and influence. They certainly don’t belong to the oppressed, marginalised, and low paid. If anything, those groups are often the target of “The Rules”. A case of knowing your place in this world.
Equity, as opposed to equality, recognizes that each person has different circumstances and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome. It’s about giving people what they need to succeed. And we don’t all need the same thing.
I’m lucky. I’m a white, middle aged, CIS, man, and I was born in one of the top five economies in the world. The very definition of privilege. I haven’t faced ageism, sexism, racism, orpoverty… I’m well educated, have a good income, and grew up in a happy home. Very little gets in the way of my goals. Except for the fact that society disables me because I’m autistic.
Although both equality and equity promote fairness, equality achieves this through treating everyone the same regardless of need, while equity achieves this through treating people differently dependent on need. However, this different treatment may be the key to reaching equality.
Equity isn’t about giving some people less, but rather providing more to those who need it most. Fairness through equity means giving people varying, perhaps unequal but proportionate, levels of support. Can you see why an autist is particularly interested in this area of social policy?
I believe many do not comprehend what this type of social justice actually is, or what it means on an individual level. We should not sit back and enjoy the privileges we are fortunate enough to experience whilst ignoring the plight of others. We must fight, just like our forefathers did, to ensure that the most vulnerable, or with greatest need, are given enough support to secure the outcomes expected by those who have it all.
Privilege comes with responsibility, and I believe it is my responsibility to speak up, not just out of self-interest but with the goal of making the world a better place for those who haven’t had the same opportunities as I have, through no fault of their own.
I’ve said before how labels matter. Words have meanings and can determine actions. If we autists simply ask for equality then that’s what we will get, the same things that neurotypicals get. We already know where that leads, burnout.
In order to create true equality, equity is what we really need.
“When we identify where our privilege intersects with somebody else’s oppression, we’ll find our opportunities to make real change.” — Ijeoma Oluo
