What is the Importance of Equality?

Full Name: Veronika Morgans       

Birth Country: Canada

Languages: English

Occupation: COO Marknology. Co-Founder Landlocked

I was living in Tampa finishing up my Masters in Environmental Engineering. My brother (and business partner) was living in Kansas City when I started helping him with both of our companies. Once I graduated it was either continue on the Engineering trajectory or move to KC and take a chance. Best decision of my life moving to Kansas City.

There are a lot of reasons I could give as to why this project is important to me. I grew up all over the world in Canada, Africa, and Russia I came back to the US at 18. I've seen the worst of humanity and the best of humanity. I'm a white female who spent most of her time in Africa. Grew up around refugee camps and extreme poverty. Often feeling like I didn't fit in, shy, awkward and even though my skin color, language etc was the common language my insides were different. However, the more I started to talk to the people around me I realized that we all are "human" we all face many of the same fears, insecurities of not fitting in, of

being different, of being misunderstood. Regardless of what language we

speak, what race we identify with, gender, occupation we have the same

basic needs and desires. There will always be something about you that

makes you different, however, these are the beautiful parts of us, not the

parts we should be scared of or shy away from.

As someone who grew up in countries where English was not spoken, I'm very comfortable being surrounded by the unknown. I grew up in the Kinshasa, Congo a city of over 10 million people. Very few spoke English, Equality came in to play in the opposite way that most in the US experience inequalities. Mine was in the assumption of wealth.

As a white family in Africa, we were often the target of those less fortunate

than ourselves, even being held up by gunpoint, kidnapped and lied to by

those whom we considered family. Our skin color signaled wealth. While we

did have more than most in the country we didn't have a lot. My family had

sold all of our belongings and taken that money to live on while in the country

hoping to help in any way they could.

Quite a difficult question to succinctly answer but I will try. When thinking about equality it doesn't mean that there aren't differences or that those differences shouldn't be celebrated or identified, quite the opposite. The differences are what make us beautiful.

We celebrate those differences but our differences don't divide us. The

importance of equality for me is to let those who feel different or less than

because of languages, culture, race, skin color, social class, gender, weight,

religion and the list could go on know that I stand with you, that I think you

are beautiful, that I will be bold in my support.

There are a couple of different times that come to mind when thinking of

equality growing up that I often come back to.

- I remember being in school in Africa and a girl came up to me and told me

she was African. The girl looked like me. I remember it so clearly telling her

there was no way she was African, she was white! I was so jealous. I moved

to Africa when I was 4 and I wanted to be African too. I came home that day

telling mom about what the girl had told me, I just knew she was lying. Little

did I know that you could be white and African :)

- We came back to the US around 10 or 11 for a few years and I had a

girlfriend who was black. We were besties, completely unaware of our skin

color differences. I grew up in Africa so all of my friends looked like her.

However, her mom had not grown up in Africa and was very aware of our

differences. She would often accuse me of not treating her daughter right

because of her skin color. I was completely baffled, I would go home in tears.

It wasn't until later in life that I realized that that was a protection

mechanism. I can't even begin to understand what she must have gone

through. Today we are friends both my bestie and her mom.

- I moved back to the states around 19 and moved to Louisiana to go to 

The University of Louisiana. I chose this school because it was cheap and was

known for its great education and I received my Bachelor's in Political Science

there. It wasn't until I started school in Louisiana that I realized that racism in

America was not a thing of the history books. The university was very much

divided. I learned a lot from those years.

It's always been my brain, my thought process, my discipline, my ability to

see both sides of a situation.