Seeking Equity Instead Of Equality
Throughout history, the goal for a truly interracial American democracy has alway been equality. A common misconception is that equal treatment is achieved when minorities no longer experience oppression and are fully integrated into society. While it is a compelling idea, in truth, there are centuries of oppression that must always be taken into consideration before any substantial step can be taken towards solving racism. Oppression has witnessed the black man and the white man being allocated different sums of money. The black man's relative lack of privilege in society was compensated for by charging him less and thereby counterbalancing the 80 cents to a dollar wage difference between black men and white men. We’ve been framing the struggle for cultural tolerance as one of equality, when it should really be about equity.
When our nation’s citizens inherently begin at different rungs of the social ladder, it is futile to think that rules put in place to ensure equality will in fact result in equality. When college-educated black men earn only 80 cents compared to the dollar that college-educated white men will earn for the same job, there is clearly an underlying cause—whether it be differences in background, prejudices rooted in history, or a lack of experience. Whatever the case, one thing that is clear is that the majority of people of color grow up with fewer opportunities than the majority of white people. Due to these circumstances, the innately privileged have a moral obligation to aid the less privileged. Therefore, rather than equality, it is equity that should be emphasized—an effort to consciously displace the mindsets and biases that place minorities at a lower starting point from birth.
A natural progression would be the question: does this then give the oppressed the right to treat the more privileged unfairly, based on the years of injustice that they themselves had to suffer through?
Last Friday, Lourdes Ashley Hunter, a transgender woman of color, delivered a keynote address, the highlight event of the day. In it, she swore repeatedly, accused a math teacher of racism by name, called white people “pasty” and requested the audience to either celebrate her or leave altogether. In her subsequent Q&A workshop, she asked two white students to leave the room after dismissing their questions on white supremacy. Hunter specifically criticized the presence of white people in her workshop when she had previously requested that only black students be allowed to attend. Her actions sparked controversy throughout campus among people who accused her of being rude, insensitive, and unprofessional. Others praised her bravery and courage for speaking out. Regardless of the polarized opinions on her speech and workshop, at the end of the day, Hunter was asked not to return to campus, and the administration sent out an email expressing disappointment and regret for her actions.
The fact of the matter is that when you hold privilege, it is hard to interpret the actions of those that are less privileged in anything but a negative light—especially when these actions differ from what you are normally used to seeing. A wealthy person will inherently find it difficult to understand why a homeless person cannot just work hard to get a job. An academically excelling student will inherently find it difficult to understand why an underachieving student can't just study harder to get good grades. A popular person would struggle with understanding why a socially awkward person finds it hard to be themselves. It is hard for students that attend a renowned elite private school in the nation to understand why a black, trans woman would feel hostile towards any white citizens.
As a student body, our reactions to her conduct just reinforce the fact that people are unwilling to open their minds to understand others. Instead, we restrict our ideas and analyses to what we want to believe. As a black trans woman, Hunter lives in fear every day of being abused, raped, killed. The statistics certainly justify her apprehensions. According to Planet Transgender, an online journalistic campaign documenting a wide array of transgender experiences, a trans woman is killed somewhere in the world every 29 hours. In addition, the average life expectancy of a trans woman of color is 35 years. Imagine looking to the future and seeing not 70, 80 years, but instead half that. You wouldn't expect to survive past graduate school. How hard is it for us to suck it up once, listen to what this woman has to say, and try to understand with compassion why she acts the way she does? Her so-called rudeness and disrespect towards us pales in comparison to the amount of suffering that she has had to go through, simply because of her gender identity and her race.
Yes, it is true that the Academy could have chosen someone better to come to our school. Her speech was not appropriate for the keynote address on our school's Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a day of education, reflection, and gratitude. Her actions were not justified and her words scarred many in the community. She is incorrect in thinking that by putting down people of other races, racism will be solved. But despite the errors in her methods, the viewpoint that she offered is valuable, unique and uncommon in our secluded Exeter bubble. Hunter channeled her transformative experiences into her speech and bore a message that we all needed to hear.
After all, it’s only rational to find hurt people inadvertently hurting others in return. The way she conducts herself and her vehement opposition to any group, excluding her own, simply shows the extent to which she herself has been attacked by others. Just because her scars are not visible, just because she covers them with confidence and bravado, does not mean that they don't exist and have not damaged her immensely in the past. By relegating her stance even more and not trying to understand her, we only tear open her wounds again and assure her once again that no one sympathizes with her. By now, the existence of a vicious cycle is clear. The problem then distills to morality and compassion.