In my Exclusion and Inequality class, I was able to reflect on what meritocracy means (a concept of meritocracy is that of success being determined when you only have talent and hard work). The idea here sounds fair, and logical: if you do your part then you should be able to make it, no matter who you were. My studies of realities of informal settlements like Kibera led me to realize that meritocracy is not only impossible, but not easy either, in these environments.
Hundreds of thousands of people in Kibera live in extreme poverty; everyday reality is overcrowding, lack of access to basic services such as education and healthcare, and lack of secure housing. However, in such a context, one may find that the idea that success is dependent on merit is separated from lived experience on the part of its residents. There is often a barrier preventing the things like Amina could and wants to, Amina, a young girl in Kibera wanting to get to university, child. It might be missing school so that they can support their family or it’s taking away the ability to study effectively, these are structural challenges which puts barriers to opportunities that hard work can’t surmount.
Reflecting on these realities I wondered how meritocratic can really be. The core of meritocracy is the belief that all people will begin from the same level, and those who can do the best will eventually have the best. In Kibera however the playing field is anything but level. And even the very best, the hardest working among us, tower over huge barriers, whether regarding an education system that doesn’t reach them, living with insecure access to necessities, or trying to begin a business within an ecosystem that is all but impossible for the poor. When society is set up so that deep inequalities are created by the very structure of the system out of which success is harnessed, then the idea that success is only a function about effort falls apart.
I, too, reflected on the need for a ‘veil of ignorance’ as in the idea by John Rawls that is that if individuals were asked to design a fair society whilst remaining ignorant of their own status in it, they would come up with a system ensuring the same opportunities for all. The concept helped me understand that meritocracy is privilege of a few and not the many and that those living in informal settlements don’t have to deal with the systemic barriers they face. Often, people shaping opportunities for Kibera’s residents have never walked in these kinds of feet. To many, this sounds like a good standard for meritocracy until you retreat yourself to the point where you are barely meeting basic needs, where it becomes a dream.
In the end, looking back at it, I realised that meritocracy won’t be the best or fairest way of dealing with inequality in places such as Kibera. We shouldn’t be asking people to do more work, we need to be taking down the systemic barriers that bar access to opportunity for the most marginalized. We need not just a belief in meritocracy, but a commitment to getting everyone there, the resources and opportunities to succeed. True fairness can only be achieved when we lift the playing field by taking on and solving the root causes of inequality, not just the effects, and when success really is a matter of applying our talents in an equal playing field of opportunity.
