Many people get caught up in the ideas of equality as being the ideal form of justice and fairness. While it is true that equality is often presented as being fair, and often is fair, there are times where equality does not create the even playing field it claims. This is where equity steps in.
Equity is the distribution of resources in such a way that everyone has the resources to 'even the playing field' so to speak. As the cute little picture above demonstrates, equality is the idea of justice that everyone gets the same resources regardless of other factors. Equity is the idea of justice that disadvantaged people are given the resources to provide equal opportunity for success. Many people do not understand that this is not a free pass, but a way to work against the systematic inequalities built into various aspects of our society