Equality Versus Advantage

Something that I am struggling with this year is power between two opposing groups. In my area of service, this has usually been about political issues but it can most certainly be among friends, communities, or other groups as well.

I recently had to do research on a case that our company is working and I read a lot of articles from public newspapers and company websites alike. I started by reading from the international company’s (who we are opposing) articles. As I read, I started to feel sympathy for the company because of the good they were doing to Mexico by bringing jobs for the mine. The articles from the corporation made me feel like ProDESC is trying to rob them of money and resources to provide for the communities wants. But as I read articles from national newspapers, our articles, and talked to workers and the members of the community, I realized that the organization was taking more than they needed and should have been honoring their contract by providing guaranteed services to the community that they purchased land from. I read that the company was using scare tactics to threaten people opposing their business. For that one moment when I was reading their articles, I felt like our company was fighting for more than just human rights. I had mixed feelings about what is equality in this situation.

Equality is a matter of perception in many situations. Along with lots of research from both point of view, the term of “equality” can be better understood but these situations are still very difficult to decipher. While in Mexico, I have seen radical feminists, who like to take more authority than would be normally given. I have read in the news about racial groups who do not have statistics to back up their public movement. History has seen other racial groups who try and take more power for themselves who care less out the concept of equality and want to raise themselves up to a higher status while pushing others down.

I am not sure that if the government threw me some sort of tax cut that was injustice to others but benefited me, I would say anything because it would be helping me. I doubt that anyone will ever say “that is the answer, now we are equal!” I think people in general, will always try and lift themselves up to a higher position. People like to have more (money, stuff, and power). I am no exception, but I am trying harder to point out injustice when I see one group striving for more than the other. I do think the answer to these types of conflicts is enlightenment. Being able to see another point of view, or facts against both point helps make a more educated decision. I think that a lot of the issues do come down to a matter of perspective in many instances.