The word of the moment "Equality"

It has been a while since I last wrote a blog, despite how many eventful day I had experienced. I just could not pick which one to share with you. Therefore, I will reveal a little bit of my Berea journey.

Since I moved to Berea, I have experienced some moments that push me into thinking, and I have change my opinion on some important issues. Nonetheless, I believe that the very root of who I am is still untouched. I have grown into a different man with the same values but different attitudes toward major world topic; I have watched my sense of humor changing from enjoying funny jokes to laughing to right kind of comments. I would not say I become more sensitive, if that is the right word anyway, but I sure am ticked for things that I used to let go before such as being called nigga by fellow black person, people who makes dumb jokes about slavery as if it was a million years ago, or anyone who fail to understand the differences between acceptance and tolerance. As luck would have it, I do not cross many of those described above around Berea.

I can vividly remember the third Friday afternoon after I moved on campus. I had the opportunity to be part of a French club. The conversation was supposedly be just about how one can greet another person in French and other simple survival sentences since the majority of the participant were just beginner in the language. It was one of the best conversations I have had in a while about the bigger concerns. In a colorful room fill with an aroma of well-done organic food serving at the school cafeteria, I was about to experience "la table francaise" for the first time. I was excited about using my French, but little did I know that I was about to get into deep life principles and worldwide dilemma type of conversation.

We began with a brief introduction of everyone following by a short analysis of the diplomatic problem that exists between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. One of the consequence of that binational conflict was a mass deportation of Dominican of Haitian descent to a land they have never set foot. We started to dig deep into history; lots of facts as well as personal opinion were brought to light. I can still hear one of my Haitian friend saying, “There is no innocent in this war, but there sure are victims”. We continued on analyzing the conflict while comparing both countries relationship with other binational relation. We were able to see how the relation between Haiti and the Dominican Republic had many similarities between that of France and Germany. The conversation was interesting enough that some of the students who were not as fluent in French were trying their best to give their own opinion on the subject. Then all of a sudden someone said, “La vie n’est pa juste” which translate as “Life is not fair” I was not shocked hearing that sentence but there was something about it that I just could not comprehend. How can life be unfair? What is life? I have never come across a definite meaning of life, and then all of a sudden something, which we can barely define, becomes unfair. I was not thinking about Rousseau or any particular philosopher, but I knew something about the structure of the sentences was not quite right to me, so I shouted that life is in fact fair. In a split of a second, I became the least popular French speaker on the table.

I was not there to convince anyone about my point of view, nor did I intended to discuss Haitian politics as we had previously done, but I felt as if I needed to finish my thought. I continued to say that the fact that everyone has his or her own problems made it fair to me. I knew that was an overgeneralization and quite poorly structured sentence attempting to back my previous statement. One of the women went back to me on the equality and disparity that existed as if LIFE was the one to be blamed. I was caught up in the idea that society was the reason for our grieves. Humans are the sources of almost all of our problems, and then someone began to quote Voltaire to say how we need to cultivate our own garden. We went back in forth from Rousseau to Voltaire, and even Zadigue, one of my favorite book, was quoted against me.

I knew I rubbed my peers on the wrong spot when I said that equality is one the most misunderstood terms existing in many languages, and that I am particularly not looking for equality. Some of them looked at me as if I was crazy, and then I started to explain to them how if there were justice we would have not needed to be equal. I was not saying that everything was just were it was supposed to be, in fact I thought a lot of changes could be made, need and can be done in this world. However, we would need to look at the problems instead of the symptoms. If we defined inequality as absence of equality then what is equality?

All I could think about when they mention the word EQUALITY was “putting everyone at the same level” no matter how hard one work. That is what I wish they had explained to me, I wish someone had told me that they were talking about EQUAL OPPORTUNITY. Three month from then,

I wished I knew that was the kind of equality that they were talking about. The possibility of having a quality education no matter what county one is from or what title precede one’s name. At that time I would have argued that the disparities that exist between the education of those coming from poor neighborhood and well-to-do community was merely a difference of student’s attitude. Little did I know that the education system in America penalized those who are from low housing area since the majority of the funding comes from property taxes.

Click here http://www.idra.org/Education_Policy.htm/Fair_Funding_for_the_Common_Good/Property_Taxes_and_Your_Schools/

Another problem is the segregation based on the location. While it is in the parents’ nature to choose what is best for their kids, only those who can afford the prices can opt to a second choice if they judge their communal school to be inadequate. Schools of poor funding are link to many of their student’s problems in our society, and one of them is the dropout rate. Not only those students will be earning the least during their lifetime, but also they will be more likely to have unwanted babies, more susceptible to go to jail and to create the inferno circle for their children.

The list of inequality goes on to social and economic class, ethnic differences and so on.

By. Starson Audate