Philosophy & Rhetoric Apr 2022

What Cannot Be Said? “Equity Achieved”

Mari Lee Mifsud University of Richmond

Abstract

ABSTRACT In contemporary U.S. public discourse, calls for achieving equity abound. Many metrics now measure equity being achieved. I inquire into whether equity can be said to be achieved and still be equity. Inquiring as such leads me to excavating the menacing and actual cultural violence of developing such achievement. Simultaneously, this excavation shows the rhetoric of equity qua equity as a means of abolishing the conditions for that violence to take hold. I put forward that equity cannot be said to be achieved without the conditions of possibility equity offers being colonized. If a commitment to antiviolence speaks, it cannot say, “Equity achieved.”

Journal
Philosophy & Rhetoric
Published
2022-04-01
DOI
10.5325/philrhet.55.1.0071
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Topics
rhetorical criticism discourse analysis race and writing public rhetoric
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