Language matters: Why we need to stop talking about eliminating health inequities

As advocates for health equity—when everyone has a just opportunity to live their highest health potential—we need to stop talking about eliminating health inequities. Not because unjust differences in health across groups don’t matter or because we don’t need to transform systems to produce equitable outcomes for all. Rather, framing our focus on reducing differences in health obscures the reality that inequities affect us all. Furthermore, the language of “eliminating inequities” centers Whiteness, is mathematically ambiguous, and emphasizes individual-level solutions. In this article, I explore these issues and propose an alternative that is more aligned with what equity and justice truly mean. (author abstract)