What is Equality?
And can we ever achieve it?
Is equality a goal that each society should aim for or is it an unreachable ideal?
The concept is defined as the state of being equal, especially in status, rights, and opportunities.
I used to think that we should all aim for it, I saw it as the destination of all political journey. Wouldn’t everything be solved if we were just all equal?
But as we evolve on three levels, as individuals, communities, and Nations, we encounter inequalities everywhere.
How can countries be equal?
Looking at our three criteria for equality: status, rights, and opportunities, we are far from being equal in all of them.
Status and opportunities sound somewhat subjective. Rights could be a plain field for all of us if we managed to have a consensus between a couple hundred nations.
What if we did it though, would that be enough? If all countries had the same visa or trade agreement, would that make us equal on status and opportunities?
We would still have thousands of years of history behind us that shaped our view of the world and attributed status to certain lands over others. We would still know about the wars or injustices that result in resentment over another nation.
Even if we started with a clean slate, no two countries would have the same natural resources or population.
We might achieve fairness between countries one day, but equality doesn’t seem likely, maybe it is achievable on other levels.
Can two communities have the same opportunities?
The hot topic at the moment is Black Lives Matter, as it should be, and I hope it finally changes things for the better.
This movement brought the wealth gap to my awareness. If you’re not familiar with it, as I was a few weeks ago, it explains how after two centuries of slavery, you can’t expect the Black community to have a fair chance compared to the White.
For starter, the latter had a substantial head start, and it doesn't get better when you add on top of it compound interest and segregation.
For example, a white family would buy a house in a “good” neighbourhood which would only increase in value over time. A black family would get denied a house in the same community, even if they had the financial means, as it would decrease the value of the neighbourhood. A hundred years later, both families would have a huge gap between the accumulated wealth of their descendants in real estate alone.
None of it seems fair to me, let alone equal.
Can’t two individuals be equal?
Each individual is dealt with certain cards at birth, to name a few: a gender, a race, a nationality, a social class, if their brain will understand math better than Spanish, the economic situation they will start their working life in, and so on.
Two individuals might inherit the same rights if they share a community or a nationality. But they seldom share the same genes and similar abilities.
Can I have an equal chance at playing basketball with my 5 feet 3 as Michael Jordan? Or at changing the world of Physics as did Einstein with his genius IQ?
Our natural talents as well as our perseverance to practise them will determine our opportunities and status. That is if our passport didn’t crush our chances of success to begin with.
Equality is a mirage. Fairness and justice should be our goals. They imply an active effort to not discriminate.
We can aim for equality knowing we will never be truly equal. We should not give up on the dream of treating everyone fairly. All should have the opportunity to follow the path tailored to them, regardless of social dictates but only taking into consideration what each individual has to give to society thanks to their uniqueness.
