ANALYSIS โ The term โequityโ has seeped into every aspect of U.S. domestic, and even foreign, policy. We hear the term everywhere.ย
Most recently VP Kamala Harris used it to describe how hurricane relief funds should be distributed in Florida based in part on skin color, and โcommunities of colorโ should receive priority.
This outrageous claim from Harris provoked a backlash from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, many conservatives, and others.
On his first day as president, Joe Biden also issued an โExecutive Order on Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities.โ
This made promoting โequityโ a centerpiece of his administration – a highly damaging proposition.
But to many Americans itโs a totally innocuous term, which sounds a lot like equal or equality.
And arenโt Americans supposed to be โequal under the law?โ
So, what is the big fuss?
Well, the fact is the term โequityโ is just the latest effort in a long line of leftist code words intended to mask their true intent.
Equity is not only not similar to equality; it is the polar opposite. It is an evil code word for socialism.
It means ignoring individuals and favoring some groups over others.
The ultimate goal of โequityโ is not to ensure equal opportunities, it is to achieve equal outcomes.
That is just a new brand name for the oldest program of social and economic leveling ever invented – socialism.
Harris admitted as much in a tweet and video, posted before the election and viewed well over 6 million times: โThereโs a big difference between equality and equity.โ
But the left tends to not highlight the true impact of this huge difference.
Instead, they argue that some people simply need a hand to help them reach the same level playing field.
However, promoting โequityโ means ending Americaโs traditional guiding ideal of โequal treatment under law.โ
It enshrines reverse discrimination as policy.
It is a mandate to discriminate based on skin color, economic standing, or other standards such as gender identification.
And it is undermining Americaโs bedrock principle that people should be treated equally and judged as individuals, not as members of groups.
As Charles Lipson wrote in โEquityโ is Socialism by Another Nameโ in the Wall Street Journal last year:
Those who push for equity have hidden these crucial differences for a reason. They arenโt merely unpopular; they challenge Americaโs bedrock principle that people should be treated equally and judged as individuals, not as members of groups.
He adds:
Hidden, too, are the extensive measures that would be needed to achieve equal outcomes. Only a powerful central government could impose the intensiveโand expensiveโprograms of social intervention, ideological re-education and economic redistribution. Only an intrusive bureaucracy could specify the rules for every business, public institution and civic organization. Those unhappy implications are why advocates of equity are so determined to hide what the term really means.
Lipson, a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Chicago, who founded the Program on International Politics, Economics, and Security, continues:
One measure of how unpopular these unequal programs are is how often their proponents need to rename them. โQuotasโ were restyled as โaffirmative action.โ The goal was still to give special benefits to some groups to achieve desired outcomes. Now โaffirmative actionโ has also become toxic, rejected most recently by voters in deep-blue California. Hence, the new name, โequity.โ
Instead of making their case openly and honestly, advocates of equity twist and turn to avoid revealing their radical goal of re-engineering society through coercion.
This is the ultimate goal of the left โ using the term โequityโ to mask a coercive socialist agenda intended to โfundamentally transformโ American society – to quote Barack Obama in 2008.
Americans must challenge the concept and the term at every turn. We believe in equality not โequity.โ And we must fight to defend it.ย
Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.