(By Steven Black)

The concept of equity is notably difficult to define. The authors of the United Nations’ publication “Social Justice in an Open World” tend to focus on equality, mentioning equality of rights and equality of opportunities. For these authors, the switch to a discussion of equity in living conditions (rather than equality in living conditions) becomes necessary because “equality in living conditions has never been achieved in practice… and is today commonly perceived as incompatible with freedom” (p. 16). Similarly, in his book Linguistics in Pursuit of Justice, John Baugh defines justice to include, “fair treatment, equal opportunities, and respect for others” (p. 2 fn1, emphasis added). However, given the historical significance of structural inequalities (patterned largely along the lines of race, gender, and sexuality) and the contemporary reproduction of such inequalities, an equity approach is required in order to redress structural inequalities and thereby attain equality of opportunities.

The question of how to distribute a limited supply of vaccines for COVID-19 provides an example of immediate relevance on the concept of equity. The U.S. government has opted to distribute vaccines to states based on population size. They have opted for an equality approach, giving each population an equal apportionment of the vaccine. While this may be easier for the government to enact, it is profoundly inequitable. Black, Latinx, and Indigenous individuals have been disproportionately infected with the virus. There are many reasons for this, and most of these reasons can be traced back to historical and contemporary economic inequalities resulting from structural racism. In this situation, an equity approach requires that more doses of the vaccine be distributed to Black, Latinx, and Indigenous persons than to white persons. Doing so would result in something closer to equality of opportunity–here, equality of the opportunity to not be infected with COVID-19.

Our website discusses how questions of equity are linked with linguistic and communicative patterns and ideologies, specifically with reference to race, gender, and health. Click on the links above to read overviews about each topic, and click on the links on the right to read blog post examples related to each topic.