A Privilege or Equality Mindset?

Image credit: James Basil, Unsplash

“Every time you see me, I come as one, but I stand as ten thousand.”
— Maya Angelou

Mindsets are the collection of thoughts and beliefs that shape are behaviour. Privilege is a perceived advantage that a particular person or group believes they possess based on surface level things, like wealth and the colour of their skin. Equality is the state of being equal in regards to human rights rights and life opportunities. When privilege, superiority, entitlement, ignorance, selfishness got masked by laws that were meant to provide human rights and equality, I ask which has more influence: a privilege or equality mindset?

When those that made these laws had the foresight to ensure benefits to only a selected few “screened in” based on the colour of their skin by putting them in positions of power, I ask which has more influence a privilege or equality mindset?

Paulo Coelho wrote in The Alchemist, “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” Evidence exists of this in singularity. We hear and see individuals who have achieved. Are they stopping to recognize the system was build to ensure their success while keeping down others? When awards and accolades are doled out to these successful humans, while others that have achieved greatness in their own right go unnoticed, I ask which has more influence a privilege or equality mindset?

When the system built by a select few, has caused women to compete against each other, has created model minority thinking in people of colour, and shunned the identity of the LGBTQ+ community, I ask which has more influence a privilege or equality mindset?

When I see diversity of thought and colours of the rainbow united by the thousands, the light of equality is shining through. When I see and hear young children, including my own, questioning the system with a desire to dismantle it, the light of equality is shining through. Has the human race reached the stage where Margaret Mead’s words, “never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has”, is coming to fruition? Perhaps it has.