Equality or Equity?

I have never been comfortable with the word “equality.” A lot of activists used to say that that’s what disabled folks were trying to achieve, but that seemed to me to fall short of the goal.

I always thought that to treat people equally meant to treat them the same. But when you do that with disabled folks, the end result is not always that you’re treating them fairly. Accessible public transportation is a good example. In order for me to ride a bus, I need it to be wheelchair accessible. But people who don’t use wheelchairs don’t need that. So if you treat us equally by sending us the same inaccessible bus, they can ride, but I can’t.

Treating people fairly means recognizing that people are different and accommodating those differences when necessary.

When I started hearing the word “equity” used to describe the goal of disability activists, it sounded a lot more satisfying. The word seemed to recognize the fact that business as usual had left some people behind, and always would, which meant that we had to come up with new ways of doing business.

That’s why I’m interested in efforts that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The squatter who used to occupy the White House (and now occupies it again) has renewed his assault on DEI. 

On his first time around, the squatter issued an executive order that was ironically entitled “Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping.” lt contained an analysis of DEI that was incredibly shallow, even for the squatter.

The executive order said, “This ideology is rooted in the pernicious and false belief that America is an irredeemably racist and sexist country; that some people, simply on account of their race or sex, are oppressors; and that racial and sexual identities are more important than our common status as human beings and Americans.”

It also said, “Unfortunately, this malign ideology is now migrating from the fringes of American society and threatens to infect core institutions of our country. Instructors and materials teaching that men and members of certain races, as well as our most venerable institutions, are inherently sexist and racist are appearing in workplace diversity trainings across the country . . . ”

The executive order instructed all federal agencies to eliminate anything in their policies and practices that promotes DEI and to withhold money from private federal contractors that fail to do the same.

But when Joe Biden took office, the first thing he did was rescind the squatter’s executive order by issuing an executive order of his own, encouraging the federal government to “pursue a comprehensive approach to advancing equity for all,” including people of color, people living in poverty, and other marginalized groups. 

This executive order instructed federal agencies to “recognize and work to redress inequities in their policies and programs that serve as barriers to equal opportunity.” 

And then came the Dismantle DEI Act of 2024. Introduced in June and cosponsored by seventy-five Republicans in the House, it sought to rescind Biden’s executive order and reverse any changes it made. Fortunately, it did not become law.

But the squatter now has another opportunity to do what Congress couldn’t do to crush any progress on DEI. He immediately jumped at the chance; on his first day in office he ended all federal DEI programs, calling the initiatives “illegal and immoral discrimination programs.”

That’s the kind of mean-spirited stuff we can expect from him.