Equity on global level, what this means?

Hi @marinappdf,

Huge apologies for my late response to this thread. I confess I struggle a lot with this issue, and more so regarding my own identify. To keep my response (relatively) short, I will respond to the part where you tagged me, i.e. with regards to “West centered” concepts like male, white, wealth, conservative, and colonial privilege, etc.

My home country is Taiwan, and wealth privilege (and big wealth gap) is certainly a big deal similar to what I observed having collectively lived in the US and UK for 15+ years. Interestingly, there is also white priviliege, but in a strange - and in my opinion - unsettling way where “white” people are with special privileges and given more space when they are the extreme minority in a fairly homogenously Asian society. Back in Taiwan, I am aware of the male privilege that I have, and it is also similar to what I’ve seen in the “West” (though I try to avoid the West-East dichotomy). Another thing is that Taiwan has been subject to serial-colonisation over hundreds of years by both European and other Asian countries and didn’t stand on it’s own until 70-ish years ago, yet it is now considered to be heavily “Westernised”, which all gets very complicated.

On the other hand, I’ve trained and worked as an ecologist for most of my academic career in the US and UK. At least in the ecological sub-fields I’ve worked in, they’re dominated by white, old men and I’d be in the extreme minority. I remember being part of a marine conservation research project 2010-2013 (which was amazing in other ways, happy to share in another thread… there’s OSH potential there!) and of the probably 50+ people I worked with on and off during that time on field work or writing papers, I was one of only two “Asians” and there was literally only one African American woman. It’s not that people necessarily treat you “badly” all the time, but you are constantly reminded in subtle ways that you “stand out”.

All of this is to confess that I struggle with my own identify. I feel like I have so much privilege being where I am (for example, I was only a few out of hundreds of people graduating from my secondary school that went abroad for higher education) yet I have previously been “put” into minority buckets. Maybe this is all very context-dependent. Anyways, I think there are definitely people who would fit the governance goal of diverse representation better than me and can speak more on this topic in more thought-out ways.

Sorry this probably doesn’t help very much, but maybe someone can at least critique my points of view. I’d be grateful if someone can help me improve and be more aware/sensitive… :pray: Thank you!

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