Our Attitude Towards Inequality

After seeing the above picture did you feel that you’ve been privileged–or did you just sigh and thanked God you were lucky because of the family you were born in? Or did you just look away, thinking it’s okay, society is inequitable, what we can do?

I think inequality is the root of so many problems. Sometimes these problems seem too abstract to solve—they seem like things that are beyond us. Inequality is so large, and we feel so small about ourselves that we might just shrug and say, “where do I begin?” But until we realize that we are a part of a problem, until we talk of why is the society inequitable because so many people are marginalized and discriminated against—we will never make progress.

May have separated themselves in gated colonies, shopping malls, separated their lives from the “others”, and only interact with them when they are needed for services. From early childhood, they are removed from eyesight as not a part of “our” world, how many Dalits did we grew up with, how many of us have gone to the schools were where slums kids are going? For those with privilege, they are not even in our vision they are not part of consciousness why would us even worry about it? Impoverished people don’t impact our lives, right? I think it’s so strange that we have managed to create a society where that kind of discrimination starts at an early age and therefore all our lives in a way we live in this insular world.

Then I hear people justifying these inequalities and calling themselves intellectuals. There’s talk about meritocracy and how it’s common knowledge that the best man, the best woman should win. Yet the truth is, so many people are starting that race miles behind or not even allowed to be a part of that race. Where there is no level playing field where do you even begin? Then we have these kinds of conversations about reservations, are reservations patronizing, is it against meritocracy, is reservation is trying to bring in more mediocrity. We have intellectualized inequality and we have said well this is the way it is and some people are going to be left out but that’s because they are just not good enough, but they just haven’t had the chance to be part of that race to prove themselves.

Most of us have mistaken privilege for merit and entitlement, we believe that we have got where we are because we are the best, we have worked hard, we have the merit.

Noam Chomsky, a well known public figure, once visited India and after returning in an interview, he said he has never seen a country where poverty dramatically manifests in a face as India, he also not seen a country where people have developed such a strong capacity to see and look away.

The way we look at our privilege has to change and our comfort with sufferings and injustice has to change.

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Previously published on medium

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