Memes

45655 readers

1658 users here now

Rules:

Be civil and nice.
Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

835

When you are privileged equality looks like a downgrade. (lemmy.ml)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

113 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 27 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (17 children)

There is equity, and there is equality, and those are different things. I do think that forceful push to maintain percentages in various aspects of life to correspond to percentages of population often is actually unjust. For example, to insist that it should be strictly 50/50 percentage (or whatever it is) between men and women in all professions e.g. police, school teachers, etc. and actually stop hiring a particular gender until this 50/50 distribution is established is not good.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

A great point! I feel like the overarching end goal is a meritocracy - people are rewarded for their talents and hard work. I'd wager most people agree with this goal.

The problem becomes disentangling history and circumstance from our ability to measure talent and hard work. The only way we know to break some social norms that hinder a true meritocracy is to unfairly manipulate the playing field in the short term, which in itself does not follow a meritocracy.

I think there are a few main obstacles:

Perceived talent and hard work that was actually the result of circumstance - those that think the system is currently working and therefore their position is justified.
Lack of acceptance that the goal is long term / generational. Those that are unwilling to accept a temporary 'manipulated meritocracy' in the short term that would allow a better one in the future.

load more comments (16 replies)