When it comes to inequality, it falls within different things such as health, unequal pay or education. If you are a black man, you are three times more likely to go to jail. These interesting figures are powerful weapons, but I do not think they are necessarily going to help us suppress inequalities.
For me, the real challenge of modern societies is a good community life, and I wish to emphasize on “good community life”, which is not solely living together. At the moment, I spend a lot of time abroad and it is clear to me that class, ethnicity and gender distinctions mark splits and create more and more modern societies, which makes a good community life more difficult. In our societies, this phenomenon is increasing. Globalisation means that, more and more, we need different people all the time.
The hazards of birth
When it comes to politics, it is impossible to know whether it is about individuals or groups. I mean that true inequalities arise when one gets trapped by the hazards of birth. The origin determines the destiny. This is the real problem when it comes to equality and inequality and the worst part is when class, geography, race and gender determine our future. Some years ago, in order to fight against fraud, Pizza Hut made people pay before they consume. In some places, they started to make people of a certain origin prepay. One day, four black men came in. They were asked to pay upfront and they agreed. They ate and then they realized that the white people in the next table paid after their meal. What is interesting about this story is that the people who paid after their meal are ordinary people like you and me. The four guys who were asked to pay in advance were professional footballers and, they would have probably been able to buy the restaurant with their pocket money. What is most striking in this story is that their ethnicity, the way they looked, trapped them in this particular situation. I think the issue that must be addressed about injustice and inequality is not an abstract issue. The issue arises when the category in which we are stored traps us in a place where we do not want to be. The economic crisis and the globalization exacerbate these issues. I think the key for us now is to be able to understand these issues. The problem is that the politicians have not helped us.
Inequality is based on the fact that we do not accept to say we can be trapped in categories. It is a belief that fundamentally believes that race, class, etc. are side effects. This is not true. And the abandoned problem is an over-investment in the idea that categories are victims.
English