Sausages And Eqaulity Essay, Research Paper

In speaking of equality and its true meaning, Patricia Williams takes the term equality and puts it into three levels of understanding and interpretation. The first level involves the literal and direct meaning of equality. If we take equality for its literal translation, then it justifiably means that everything and everyone shares this sense of balance and equality. Given this literal meaning, the term equality has no room for interpretation. Therefore, the Constitution, the “machinery” of equality, produces nothing but and promises nothing but equality.

On the second level, the term equality leaves room for interpretation – that each person can take away from the Constitution their own understanding. If this is true then, the term equality is not finite. There is a chance, then, that what the Constitution promises may not necessarily be equality at all.

Lastly, we can relate the term equality by coming to an understanding of what limits and boundaries define equality, so that we can challenge what is not equality by the limits we have set. And thus, we can challenge the legitimacy and authority of the Constitution to say what is or isn’t equality.

As nice as it would be for words to mean what they literally translate, Patricia Williams realizes that it is not this way. She admits that all three levels of understanding work together to form our understanding of words. And it is this room for interpretation, that Williams argues is the source of our greatest issues today. “White” does not refer anymore to the color of one’s skin. It is now associated with characteristics of being “good” and “deserving” and “safe.” And even though these interpretations may be unconsciously made, it puts people into categories. This categorization of people is exactly what determines who is the receiver of rights and equality. So then who is to say that the Constitution provides equality for each and every individual? Do the Bill of Rights really provide everyone their basic, essential rights? By the three levels of understanding, they probably don’t.