Peter Pham

Dr. Morgan

ENGL 1A

September 28, 2017

Hayes Meritocracy CRL #2

In light of the two-day thoughtful discussion from class, I would be reflecting on how a

society should achieve a meritocracy rather than answering what a meritocracy is. It seems that

the classs consensus of a meritocracy is equity. Rather than working to ensure that everyone has

an equal and identical, if not exactly similar, opportunities and access to resources, my peers and

I think it may be better to strive towards working to providing students and people who need the

resources more rather than others. One example would be cultural capital. A family who has

lived within a country, in this case the US, for generations have the understanding, resources,

and connections to effectively maneuver through the system. Yet, this is not the same situation

for an immigrant family where the child is the first member to be born in a foreign country. From

this loosely, one can conclude that the child of the immigrant family, regardless of cultural

similarities and familial affluence, is at a disadvantage to the child who is a fifth generation in

terms of cultural capital.

The challenge here is who and how should be providing the cultural capital for which the

child of the immigrant family may access and utilize. That can end up being the government, a

collection and private and public entities, and/or the child itself as the child is expected to

assimilate. Looking at this question alone, I wrestle with which source should be active

participants in this distribution of cultural capital as no entity can fully know what a native
should know to be considered of equal footing as other members of the same society, and who

is in most need.

Like any philosophical question, I have answered a question with more questions that

should be answered in order for one to better figure out what conception of a meritocracy

inherently and truly is the closest we can get to a pure and true meritocracy. I say the closest,

because it is impossible to achieve a purely (insert ideology or concept) system. Whether it may

communism or capitalism, these schools of thoughts provide a philosophy/constitution for which

a society should live be, but they do not provide an answer to every exceptional problem that

arises in reality.

For me, the one who needs support and resources/information the most are those who are

not members of the dominant cultural power of the country. In the US, that would be a typical

white American culture as they are the people that fundamentally control the US politically,

economically, culturally, religiously, and ethnically. It may seem that this may be instigating a

race war, but I am trying to argue that a society and its institution need create conditions

whereby students from disadvantaged backgrounds could be brought to the starting line of a race

many were unaware was even being run (Sonia Sotomayor). After all, I believe that unless there

is educational equality, there can never achieve a meritocratic society. I think from here, I will

need to wrestle with the question of assimilation, because the process of providing cultural

capital is assimilation. Should society evolve to cater to its members? Or are its members

expected to adapt to it?