"American society will never completely understand the true meaning of equality"

Equality in the American context is less a fixed destination than a moving horizon. The nation was built on promises of liberty while simultaneously entrenching exclusion, and each generation has stretched the meaning of who counts as fully human and fully citizen. The claim that American society will never completely understand equality reflects two realities: equality keeps expanding as new voices surface, and those who hold power can only partially perceive the structures that advantage them.

Different conceptions, equality before the law, equality of opportunity, equity of outcomes, often collide. A commitment to liberty can mask indifference to unequal starting lines; colorblind rules can preserve color-bound results. Lived inequalities intersect across race, gender, class, disability, sexuality, faith, and immigration status, making any single metric inadequate. No survey or statute can capture the full texture of harms or the specific accommodations needed for dignified participation.

Understanding is constrained not only by prejudice but by human limits. We do not easily see the water we swim in. Narratives of merit make privilege feel earned. Technologies we trust to be neutral encode historical bias. Even empathy stretches only so far; it is hard to imagine lives unlike our own. Democracy, therefore, is perpetual translation, listening across differences, revising institutions, testing outcomes, and correcting course.

The statement is not counsel to surrender. It is an appeal to humility and relentless work. If complete comprehension is impossible, the task shifts from finality to fidelity: tell more complete truths, share power, design for the margins, and measure success by those who have been least served. Equality becomes a practice rather than a prize, an ethic of attention and repair. The horizon recedes, and so we keep walking, clear-eyed, uneasy, and committed. McGill’s provocation invites a society defined by striving to treat incompleteness as fuel for creative, compassionate reform and vigilance.