Lessons From a Youth Activist: The New Civic Duty

No one can be equitable unless they have reflected on their own role in society.

(Isabela Villareal)

By Gabrielle Cosey

At 16, I attended an equity training. Like most things that change your life, I did not expect to get much out of it. Yes, I had expected a conversation around history, systemic oppression, privilege—the foundational basics of discussing race. But something else was brought up that utterly and completely altered my entire life: equity.

Now, if you are anything like I was, you probably have seen the word "equity" plastered onto some company's policy, an organization's slogan, maybe at a school, or work. But you have no idea what it means. For my part, I figured it was some sort of weird cousin of  "equality" that echoed the baseless claims of groups attempting to be more diverse. I'm now here to say that equity might just be the greatest tool we can equip ourselves with.

First, we have to define what we are talking about. Equity is the process of giving oppressed individuals and communities what they need in order to access available opportunities—and be able to thrive at the same capacity as their privileged counterparts.

Equality gets you pretty close to the first piece, which is accessing the opportunity. For the most part, we live in an "equality-centric" society. This means, theoretically, anybody can go to college. Anybody can apply for a job. And so on. Yet, we have to ask ourselves, why are racial disparities still just as large as ever?

This is where equity comes in. Rather than just saying that an opportunity is open to all, equitable practices ensure that resources are distributed to those who need them to be able to apply or attend. Equity attempts to create a culture where we give what is needed to the individual, whatever it may be. Equitable practices don't just look at the surface, they also view the centuries of systemic oppression and the effects that this has on individuals belonging to targeted communities. So equity comes from the root up, history and all.

With equity,  there is no one equation, no "one size fits all." This is both the hardship—and the complete beauty of it. It relies on centering marginalized individuals and communities, which means practices can only be equitable when involving oppressed groups, when decision-makers take the time to listen to them—and to implement their needs into culture and policy. Examples of equitable practices could include a child care stipend for volunteer work, consensus decision-making models, or no set hours in an office. Some of these might sound radical, I know. But think about how many more experienced people would be able to work with a volunteer group if someone could watch their child, or the strength that could be achieved from diversity in perspective and thought when using consensus decision-making, or what happens when employees are allowed to shape their work schedule around their needs.

Another piece of equity is that it captures the nuance and complexity of human identity. For example, I am both Black and a woman. However, I am able-bodied, cisgender, fair-skinned, and grew up middle class. I carry oppressed identities, but I also have a lot of privileges. I use my privilege to be able to grow the table in terms of people, backgrounds, perspectives, ideas and skills—all while trying to make these spaces as welcoming as possible for these varied life experiences. But I needed others to bring me into spaces that I am in today. Sometimes, the white spaces I go to school in become all too much. I feel systems rooting against me, and generational trauma and history on my shoulders at all times.

My life was irrevocably changed by the training. I went home and spent hours researching equity and racial justice. Everything just clicked. It wasn't just my activism that changed, but the core of who I am. The entire world was a different color than it was before. The questions I asked myself at 16 became: "Am I being as equitable as I can? How can I expand this to more people? Is the culture I'm inviting these people into as welcoming as possible?"

Equity isn't just about systemic change, it also is incredibly personal. No one can be equitable unless they have reflected on their own role in society, including what privilege they have and what oppression they might carry. It took me months to consider the damage I might have done as an activist (even if it was unintentional), without constantly thinking of those who are most affected by societal inequities, or without using my privilege to bring more people in. It is no quick journey and it is not painless, but it is also amazingly clarifying, profoundly enlightening, and devastatingly real.

The truth is this: Equity is the greatest tool we can use to equip ourselves and our communities for upcoming elections, for true systemic change, and for creating a culture that is truly inclusive and welcoming. It is the most fitting synonym for civic duty that exists, because it involves each and every member of the community. Anyone and everyone can use equity in their life: to pass knowledge onto someone else, to reflect internally, to volunteer, to donate, to vote.

We win and we make progress when we think of one another, when we are honest with ourselves and when we are centering those who have been marginalized. In the spirit of equity, I urge each of you to do what you can with the resources that are available to make our communities more inviting, just and equitable. Our greatest accomplishments often come from the pursuit of bettering one another rather than bettering ourselves.

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