Ever since elementary school, our teachers and parents and any other adult figure would tell us that we are all unique and special in our own way. What they've never told us was how we were unique or different than everyone else. A few years after the infancy stages, we are then taught that everyone is equal. This, by no means, contradicts the statement that we are all unique. We have merely created a notion that everyone is different but equal. However, can such a notion truly exist?
Being brought up in a multi-cultural part of the nation, San Francisco, seeing people of various ethnicity, size, traits, and sexual preference was fairly common. It was obvious to see that everyone around me was unique in their own way, but were they equal? Homosexuals were not allowed to marry until recently in California, and even so, it is considered somewhat controversial. Schools had a clear difference in ethnic ratios, and circles of friendship were generally racially based. People may have the same rights as given through the constitution, but that hardly makes them equal. As mentioned in class, Caucasians do not have the same freedom to create a “White pride” that will have the same effect as “Black pride” or “Asian pride”. Similarly, African Americans carry many negative stereotypes that people would like to pretend are not there. Even the term “African American” must be forced in attempt to not offend black people with the word “black”. Yet using that term reminds everyone that the derogatory meaning of the word “black” still exists.
Of course, differences are not limited to race or ethnicity. To describe myself and how I might be different from the person next to me, I can be considered an Asian, overweight, nerdy, otaku, heterosexual, black haired, classical music loving, shortsighted, Mac hating, etc etc male. Everyone else probably has just as extensive a list to differentiate themselves from everyone else. With so many differences, equality seems to be an unnatural impossibility.
Finals week...
14 years ago
2 comments:
Or at least, 'equality' does not seem to be a particularly useful word to talk about human beings, even as an ideal. Isn't the point that each person's 'list' of attributes really never *ends*? To accurately describe someone is to *keep* describing someone, right? Difference is never a complete quantity, and this is why ‘equality’ doesn’t really work; to understand someone's difference is to *continue to* learn about how another person experiences the world, in potentially limitless ways. In this way, labels are useful only if they spur further conversation, and not if they end communication. Do you see what I mean?
What "unique but equal" means to me is that everyone has the potential to be as great, smart, talented, etc. as anyone else in their own unique way. And how you express this idea through race brings up a good point. Because "white" people were never oppressed could be a reason for their guilt? And how would you describe the pride of Asians and African Americans?
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