SEXUAL ASSAULT AWARENESS MONTH

Equality means giving everyone the same resources and opportunities. Equity takes social injustice into account. This helps us understand that individuals and communities have different needs based on lived experiences of oppression and/or privilege. Different needs call for different types or amounts of resources (National Resource Center on Domestic Violence [NRCDV] & National Sexual Violence Resource Center [NSVRC], 2021)

It is important to know the difference between these terms, equity and equality, and how they relate to each other because sometimes a solution for one person may not help someone else.

To illustrate this point, imagine if you wanted to increase bike riding in your community, so you gave every person a 10-speed bike. For some people, this is all they would need in order to go on a bike ride. But if we think about this through a lens of racial equity, we will understand that we would need to eliminate racial disparities so that everyone is able to go on a bike ride. Why would this be? Some communities have a history of racial injustice and are not safe places to ride bikes, because of poor road and traffic conditions or lack of ability to gather safely outside. Racial equity would mean changing the infrastructure of the community so that bike riding is safe both physically and socially.