How our language reveals our thoughts on equality | Anne Phillips | TEDxCourtauldInstitute

The notion that all humans are equal is the defining idea of our age. Yet, it is an idea we do not live up to. People are excluded and discriminated against on the basis of sex, gender, race, religion, sexuality.
In this urgent and relevant talk, Anne Phillips argues that we need shift how we think of equality. Human equality is not something we need to prove or justify; it should not be conditional on having the right kind of human nature, on meeting some idealised notion of the human, or on ignoring what makes us different. Rather, human equality is a claim and a commitment that we can -- and should -- make to one another.
Anne Phillips is a Professor of Political Theory at the London School of Economics. She has been a feminist since the days of the Women’s Liberation Movement, and much of her work explores issues within feminist political theory. Among other things, she has written about the relationship between
equality and difference; the over-representation of men in politics; areas of tension between multiculturalism and women’s rights; and what goes wrong when we think of our bodies as property. Her books include Engendering Democracy, The Politics of Presence, Multiculturalism
without Culture, Our Bodies Whose Property? and The Politics of the Human. She is a member of the British Academy and has honorary degrees from the Universities of Aalborg and Bristol. She lives in London and has two sons.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at ted.com/tedx

[@melanieamber9805]

This was very interesting to watch I didn't quite realize how conditional human equality was before. thanks for presentation :)

[@Anon-tt9rz]

No. People are not born equal, they have different traits, people are not equal after they are born as well, they are born in environments with different privileges and they become even less equal as they continue to live. Because of these inequalities they are treated differently and this will never change.

[@jennetteneri2621]

indeed

[@amapparatistkwabena]

The idea is that people "are equal at birth in terms of humanity"---not invoking how much wealth or privilege their parents or family have. Even if they are born into wealthy circumstances and privilege, in the eyes of enlightened individuals, the newborn is not of any more worth than someone born into abject poverty and destitution. Subsequently, as individual moves through life, we must be careful not to confuse financial wealth and personality traits which are desirable in some regions of the world with the bare, core humanity that is left behind with everything else stripped away. In this case the spirit of this concept is very sound. We are all born equal at the very heart of our being. Everything else is baggage.. and indeed when we die, again we are all equal.

[@ribbrascal]

I was just listening to this wokedemic "scholar" on the We Need to Talk About Whiteness podcast Anti-white gobbledygook. Totally incoherent and incomprehensible.

[@billbillerton6122]

It's a carefully crafted narrative aimed at the destruction of people of European descent. They just add flowery language to make it more palatable.

[@lifeISaBITCH2k8]

Please help, what's the exact transcription for the sentence at 3:58-4:01? "whether you think of the various class [???] through which people express their disdain for those they consider their inferiors" I can't understand what is the word she uses between "class" and "through". Thank you in advance

[@sandytimewell]

snobberies

[@hydrolito]

They don't want a large number of rapists and serial killers moving in that makes common sense.

[@hydrolito]

Theodore Bundy escaped twice and killed more women once he was executed he did not do that again.

[@hydrolito]

Tatars in China have light skin so do many Iranians.

[@the_moon_dancer]

okay Anne Phillips, we just *can not* reference Adam and Eve as a symbol of "equality" when the catholic biblical story is FAAAAAAAR from it.... yikes. 😬

[@rimafair2539]

The idea of equality, unfortunately, still remains just an idea. Look what happened to the USSR - the country which wanted its people to have equal rights: Western capitalism saw it as threat to their own existence and dealt with it.

[@hydrolito]

USSR did not have equal right many were murdered by the government including Trotsky and many others put in Gulags, millions starved to death Josef Stalin didn't.

[@leightonshelley]

Lots of goernments say they advocate for equal rights. Lots of goernments fail. That doesn't mean advocating, and working towards equal rights, is not a worthwhile persuit though, right? Your comment of "the idea of equality, unfortunately, still remains just an idea. Look what happened to the USSR" implies that the USSR's puplic show of advocacy for equal rights is what was wrong with the governmennt when... it wasn't. And working towards that ideal isn't a worthless goal. What is worthless was how the USSR didn't actually pursue that ideal at all, instead centralizing power to oppress people. A government can say whatever they want: if they are actively making their society less freeing, happy, and safe, then they are not doing a good job. But, further, them doing a bad job, then, has nothing to do with what they advocate for, but what they actually DO in the world.

[@aesthetic_forlife5462]

gênant

[@VictoryToUkraine403]

Adam and Eve are depicted as white and this is wrong because derp derp derp