Equality; How Are We Hindering It's Existence

Equality. It's been on the agenda for a few years now, but our society still hasn't got round to fully implementing it, for various reasons. The majority of us want it (the minority won't be spoken about), so how exactly are we working towards it?

The aim is to ensure a state of being equal for all. It's basically a given that many of us will have come across, or even helped to support, various organisation aiming to ensure the 'rights' of some selected group of people. In this day and age, this is generally accepted as the most effective way of achieving equality.

As we progressed through society, it was vital to campaign for woman's rights, black rights, gay rights, or any other area of society facing total oppression. And arguably, it still is vital today until we stand on equal footing. However, it is also vital to recognise that this system cannot progress into the future, without becoming a hindrance for equality.

When we merely mention group B's rights in a certain situation, we reinforce that they are 'different' from group A. We consciously remind that we are not the same, and have a different label placed upon us. Though this initially was meant to reinforce equality, it can now lead to further segregation. If we are to ensure that we are all the same -- as we have fought so hard to achieve -- we must then begin to act as a collective, rather than separate groups entitled to the same thing.

It can no longer be simply our right as a woman to be considered for a job, but our right as a human being seeking employment to be considered for the job.  If we continue to do the former, we will continue to in force segregation in our society, and perhaps even turn the tables of privileges the other way.

This in no way undermines efforts made in the past to achieve our 'rights'. However, once we have placed ourselves on a level playing field, we must drop our banners and team colours. If we all want to play on the same side, then we cannot continue to bare different colours. Let us now fight for the rights of humanity, and ensure that we are all heading in the right direction.