Equity is ensuring that each person who wants to be part of a community has what they need to be whole and free. That they don’t have to expend energy to ‘make it work’ or struggle through, they can just show up and thrive. -JeKaren Olaoya (CLF)
What would be necessary for you to “show up and thrive?”
As I’ve engaged in the work of leading programs that highlight equity, I’ve noticed that people with privilege confuse equity with equality and they are not the same. In order to achieve equity in the world, we need to center the needs of those most impacted by oppression. Give people what they need to thrive and this will be different for everyone. Giving everyone the same thing does not result in equity. Equity means people who need more (money, access, healthcare) will receive it in order to thrive. -Aisha Hauser (CLF)
How do you understand the difference between equity and equality in your life?
How do we draw the circle of who is included wider and wider? How do we marvel at the beautiful diversity that is revealed when all of us can share the center instead of anyone being pushed to the margins?
How have you widened the circle of your community?
Barriers to participation in community are not only physical. To be fully accessible, all of our brains, bodies, and senses must be let in and accounted for.
When has something been made accessible for you?
My beloved friend Angel Wall likes to remind people that she loves them just as they are, just because they are. “I love you because you breathe,” she says. Her love is simply because the people around her exist–it is inherent to their being. I have always found this to be a profound and beautiful statement of theology. -Michael Tino (CLF)
How have you experienced love given to you simply because you exist?
