We are one race. As one race, we need to denounce the ideas of social or economic inequality. Where there is true equality there can be no caste system or social strata. We should no longer tolerate the injustice of racial, social, or economic inequality. We must speak as one race and stand against the political, religious, and economic oppression that has hindered our progress and evolution since the beginning of recorded history.
How often we forget that we possess education, personal wealth, and status not only because of hard work, but mainly by fate or luck. The ruling class sees equal opportunity as a birthright believing that everyone possesses it. Some go so far as to claim that equal opportunity exists for all.
When we reach our personal mountaintop, we stand there believing we achieved the outcome because we have superior intellect, skills, and drive. We did it. We fail to admit, even to ourselves, that we never could have climbed that Everest without a genuine opportunity to do so. Without opportunity, there can be no outcome.
Since the beginning of the “American Experiment”, the ruling class has determined the politics of opportunity. If we are ever to become a society of true equals, we must clearly define equal opportunity. Did the poor and under privileged of New Orleans have the same opportunity as the wealthy in the wake of hurricane Katrina? Do people in the third world have the same opportunity as those born in America? Do those of us who are born into poor families have the same opportunities as those born into wealthy families?
Does a white child have more opportunity than a black child in America? Not necessarily. Does a black child have less opportunity than a white child in America? Definitely. Does the child of an educated person have more opportunity? Of course they do. They have the opportunity of confidence and possibility. The child of a doctor or an airline pilot has the opportunity not afforded to the lower classes. It is the opportunity of exposure. It is the opportunity of recognizing limitless possibilities. True, an elite minority of the poor and under privileged “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” but they are the exception not the norm.
Many of us don’t seem to realize that minus opportunity, we are no different than the poor and under privileged. Minus the opportunity of being a middle class white man born in America what would I be? How much opportunity would I really have?
Can a poor person generate opportunities with the same regularity as a privileged person? Who can know for sure? What is the effect of generational inculcation on a race or social class? Who can know for sure? Yet capitalists continuously proclaim that all people can achieve the same outcomes given the proper amount of drive. This simple statement fails to recognize how much more difficult life is for the truly under privileged. Their lives, on a generational scale, are a fight to have dignity and pride while faced with the daily absence of opportunity. Who can truly understand the psychological impact of such a way of life?
It is time for our society to work together. Every person is our concern. Their dignity is our concern. Their rights are our concern. Their shame is our shame. Their injustice is our injustice. Their lack of opportunity is our loss of greatness. Every person shares humanity. We share one another’s privileges, rights, and degradation. As John Donne wrote in Meditation XVII, “Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind.”
The ruling class is educated – and encompasses the educated elite. We claim to understand the complex forces that tie economies and humanity together. Our interconnectedness should be a critical concern. Yet the principles by which we live indicate that each man is an island, we are on our own, individuals who are not part of the whole. How sad and lonely is life with such a view.
We are obligated to provide equal opportunities to our fellow citizens based on their intrinsic human value – not on their social status, bank account, or education. Each human being deserves an equal opportunity simply because they are human. Only then will we achieve our common destiny.