And He will judge the world in righteousness; He will execute judgment for the people with equity. – Ps 9:8 (NASB)

In an August 17, 2022, article published on the website of the management and consulting firm McKinsey & Company, titled What Is diversity, equity, and inclusion?, the word equity is defined as follows:

Equity refers to fair treatment for all people, so that the norms, practices, and policies in place ensure identity is not predictive of opportunities or workplace outcomes. Equity differs from equality in a subtle but important way. While equality assumes that all people should be treated the same, equity takes into consideration a person’s unique circumstances, adjusting treatment accordingly so that the end result is equal.[1]

That definition starts off pretty well.

In fact, I wholeheartedly concur with McKinsey & Company insomuch that equity, in practice, refers to “fair treatment for all people, so that the norms, practices, and policies in place ensure identity is not predictive of opportunities or workplace outcomes.” (By the way, another way of saying “ensure identity is not predictive of opportunities or workplace outcomes” is “ensure no individual is discriminated against in order to produce predictive opportunities or manipulate workplace outcomes.”)

That parenthetical comment is important because where McKinsey & Company’s definition of equity goes wrong – and this is also where many people misunderstand the distinction between equity and equality — is where it states, “Equity differs from equality in a subtle but important way. While equality assumes that all people should be treated the same, equity takes into consideration a person’s unique circumstances, adjusting treatment accordingly so that the end result is equal” [emphasis added].

You see, true equity doesn’t “adjust” for anything.

In fact, equity that is truly objective and fair is precisely the opposite of how McKinsey & Company define it!

To take into account a person’s “unique circumstances,” or any other such characteristics or attributes and, subsequently, to “adjust treatment accordingly,” is not equity but partiality. So McKinsey & Company’s definition of equity contradicts its own definition of equality because partiality, to any degree, is inequality.

Every man must make equality for himself. No society, no government can make this equality for him. I do not expect the black man to jump into equality; all I claim for him is that he may be allowed to jump into liberty, and let him make equality for himself. – William Wells Brown (1814-1884)

When, under any circumstances, an organization such as McKinsey & Company takes into account a person’s “unique circumstances” over and against the unique circumstances of another person, that, by definition, is partiality. In other words, it is discrimination.

To “adjust treatment accordingly so that the end result is equal” defeats McKinsey & Company’s own definition of what equality is. 

That raises the question: How can McKinsey & Company, or any organization, for that matter, say on the one hand that equality is “fair treatment” while on the other hand asserting that equity means “adjusting” how a person is treated so that an outcome is equal? To do so is objectively unfair treatment, not “fair treatment.” It is to be objectively unequal, not equal.

Equity, by definition, means equal (same) treatment, not equal (same) outcome.

Equity is a principle.

The goal of equity is the objective, fair, unbiased, and impartial treatment of every image-bearer of God (Gen. 1:27) regardless of outcome. It means that one’s unique circumstances are never “adjusted,” either in favor of or against a person, in an effort to achieve a desired outcome (what McKinsey & Company calls equality).

That is how true equality is achieved – by treating every person with equity.

[1] https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-is-diversity-equity-and-inclusion

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