There are three forms of equality: equality of outcome, of opportunity, and of perception. Equality of perception is the most basic: it dictates that for people to be equal, each person should be perceived as being of equal worth. Equality of opportunity dictates that all people should have the same opportunities open to them if they put out the effort this is a central tenet of the “American Dream.” The final form of equality, equality of outcome, attempts to “level the playing field” by forcing people into certain roles and dictates that all individuals should tend towards the mean this form of equality is evident in socialist theory.

America has enacted laws that are based on equality of outcome to attempt to ensure that “minorities” and women have access to equal pay and to remove glass ceilings, but while these programs have repaired some of the damage, paraphrasing Milton Friedman, equality of outcome leaves most people without equality and without opportunity. This is because forced equality is not equality and only hides the real issue of inequality based on perceptions.

Equality is not saying that all people are physically and mentally equal, nobody would bet an average teenager could win a game of basketball against a professional player, nor can every six-year-old be a physicist because human beings are not inherently equal. However, “true equality” says that potentially everyone should have the same opportunities, that is to say, that potentially the toddler could play professional basketball and potentially the six-year-old could become a future Einstein regardless of superficial characteristics. While these two people may not actually be able to achieve their dreams, this does not mean they should be limited by what people perceive they are capable of. This is equality of perception.

Unlike equality of outcome, equality of perception creates equality of opportunity by dictating that all people should be allowed the same opportunities even if they aren’t capable of realizing them. This allows people to reach their own plateaus without unfair external pressures. However, when one attempts to use equality of outcome to create opportunity, one must take away opportunities from one person to give them to another, rather than allowing both individuals to reach their own, personal, peaks. This is not always a bad thing, during the civil rights era it was an important move to integrate America’s divided society; however, it was a first step, and only a first step. America must move beyond this first step to continue to answer its call as the “land of opportunity.”

Of course, many factors come into account throughout individual lives that change an individual’s capacity for different activities. Equality of perception requires that one realize the way we perceive people based on bias should not limit their opportunities because it does not reflect their abilities. This means that with equality of perception no human being is artificially kept from achieving their goals based on skin color, religion, national origin, or class. Equality of perception cannot be legislated, it can only be taught, but it will create freedom and lead the way to equality of opportunity, but focusing on equality of outcome just limits the freedoms upon which America was founded.

Officer Soledad “Bullet” O’Roark loathes her nickname-and the notoriety it represents. She didn’t join L.A.P.D’s elite M-Tac squad to fight the Brass or make rookie cops idolize her. She joined M-Tac to kill freaks.
Freaks, muties, metanormals-back in the day, they were called superheroes. They had amazing powers, lurid costumes, and snappy names: Nightshift, Civil Warrior, Nubian Princess, The Giggler. They seemed to be saviors and gods. But where there are heroes, there are villains. When a clash of superheroes and supervillains destroys San Francisco, the normal human population decides it will no longer live like spectators at the foot of Mt. Olympus.

Superhumans are now outlawed and hunted by cops. But it isn’t easy to take down beings who are invulnerable or intangible, have super-strength or super-speed, or can throw flames from their body or telepathically control minds. The mortality rate for M-Tac units is nearly fifty percent-per mission. That’s why Soledad has customized hi-tech, unauthorized, very special ammo. Each freak has a different weakness, and her color-coded clips are designed to exploit every one of them. Soon Soledad is racking up a body count that makes her a legend on the force-and a nightmare in the freak underground.

But when Soledad guns down a radiant woman who can heal the sick, reverse catastrophes, and then fly away on great white wings, the cop may be starting the final war between normals and metanormals. Because Bullet O’Roark didn’t just shoot down a freak. According to all witnesses, she’s killed an angel.

After reading this book it is hard to find a place to start, but there are three major themes in this book if you know where to look. The first is pure racism and bigotry, the second is a warning against knee-jerk reactions (with broad sweeps towards September 11th), the third is more subtle and deals with when passion becomes insanity. The world that John Ridley paints is a stirring look into the human psyche.

After the destruction of San Fransisco by a super-villain, in a knee-jerk reaction the President of the United States signs an executive order declaring that any metanormals left in the country would immediately be declared personae non gratae (lit. an unwelcome person) stripping of their citizenship and their very humanity. Any person so declared is served with a warrant which, although it is technically a warrant for their arrest, signals their death. The teams of specially trained police (M-Tac) serve the warrants with the intent and expectation that they will be served to a dead body.

Because of the actions of a single super-villain an entire segment of the human species is declared nonhuman and treated as such. As is evident by O’Roarks second killing there is no burden of proof. After witnessing a collapse of a street and noticing that cars were held back from plunging into the crevice, O’Roark frantically scanned the faces in the crowd to find the one person who had saved the lives of many people. Upon finding a single person without a fearful expression she drew her gun. When that person turned to leave she followed. And when the person dropped their overcoat to fly away on golden wings, O’Roark fired her gun causing the metahuman to plummet to earth ending their life in a pile of broken bones and wings. This is a world where metahumans are nothing; even one who saved lives is considered sub-human. Although interestingly enough these same sub-humans still still try to help.

There are two lessons we can draw from this part of the story. The first is how deeply racism truly runs. The second is that over reacting to a catastrophe in anger and fear is easy, but dealing with the consequences is hard.

The second lesson we learn is that there is a thin line before passion and insanity. O’Roark hates metahumans with a passion; she devoted her entire life to killing them efficiently to the point that she received degrees in metahuman psychology and physiology before becoming a M-Tac for no other reason than to be able to kill easier. In the course of the story she finds a single person who is her soul-mate, but when he reveals himself (while saving a woman from a burning car no less) to be a metahuman she promptly attempts to kill him emptying clip after clip from her weapon into him. It had no effect on him because he was able to become intangible, but it fueled her desire even more to find a way to kill every type of metahuman.

Now one would believe that there must have been a major catastrophe in this womans life to have her hate metahumans as much as she does. However her vast hate comes from nothing more that wounded pride and broken dreams. In her own words she felt that “as a little girl they killed my dreams” because her hero let her down. She is a picture-perfect representation of a tolerated psychopath.

Equality is not saying that all people are totally physically and mentally equal, no “sane” person would bet against a professional basketball player in a one-on-one against a toddler, nor would anyone say that Einstein has the same mental capacity of the average six year old. True equality instead says that potentially everyone has the same capabilities, that is to say that potentially the toddler could play professional basketball and potentially the six year old could become a future Einstein. This is regardless of the toddler being Asian and the six year old being black they still have the same potential as any other child. However this does not mean that although all people have the potential to become Einstein does not mean they all have the capacity to. Many factors come into account through out individual lives which change an individuals capacity for different activities. In the same way Downs Syndrome could prevent the toddler from becoming a physicist, a bad knee could just as easily stop the six year old from playing basketball. True equality in this respect is realizing that just because someone does not have the capacity to be a certain way does not make them less than the people around them, however this does not mean that the people around them should be required to live up to less than their full potential to make it so everyone is “equal.”

Frequently black slaves of the south and for many years afterwards blacks were thought of as unintelligent, however this is not because of some “animal features” as many white supremacists of the day would claim, nor is it because blacks are naturally made for slavery rather it was because the quality of education available to the blacks was lower than that of the whites. This still continues today, students from poorer schools who have disproportionately large number of “minority” students have a tendency to score lower on tests. This does not mean these students do not have the same potential nor do they have a diminished capacity for learning instead it just means that the quality of the learning experience is less than what is available in more wealthy areas.

True equality is realizing that just because the government says you have to treat everyone the same does not make everyone equal. True equality is realizing that just because the parents of a child are one way or another it does not limit what the child can become. True equality is realizing that although not all people are the same they can potentially be so under different circumstances. True equality is in realizing that skin color, religion or national origin has no effect on what a person can potentially be.

Maya’s rape set the stage for the rest of her life. It starts off for Maya as just searching for affection and she begins to look at Mr. Freeman as a father figure, however Freeman takes advantage of this and after two smaller incidents rapes her. Freeman not only rapes her but rather than being a so-called crime of passion plans it specifically. When Maya goes to leave with her brother Freeman tells her to get some milk knowing that she will return with no one else around. Maya as strange it may seem was rather lucky, the incident was not as horrible as some and left her with minor mental scarring. However this does not negate the actions of Freeman, he took advantage of Maya and suffered the ultimate price for it. Maya was right to lie on the witness stand, had she confessed (note the word used) she would have been blamed for the rape. In modern times many excuses like “she was promiscuous” referring to a three year old and many other pathetic examples exist where child molesters get reduced sentences because the child is judged to share responsibility, and since human nature rarely changes one can assume it would have happened then too.

Maya’s descent into melancholy caused by her lying on the witness stand and the resulting death it caused only completely ended when she ran away from home and lived at the junkyard for a time. After being accepted into the group she was finally able to “find herself” and gained self-esteem and confidence in herself and her abilities. The transformation that started at the junkyard finally finished after becoming a mother Maya shows the life changing possibilities that the sudden responsibility of another life in your hands can bring. However even in this revelation she still is confused about the role of parent-child considering it more about ownership that parenting. However one is too assume this feeling soon subsides as Maya spends more time as a mother.

The incident with the “powhitetrash” hints at the mindset of the maturer and wiser blacks in the south, “living with your head in the tiger’s mouth” as Ralph Edison puts it. Momma’s refusal to acknowledge the girls antics, which are meant to dehumanize and abuse her, allows her to “beat” them at their own game and Momma’s steadfast respect allows her to keep her dignity, as she has not been “brought down” to their level.

Racism the book shows is not a one or a two way street, it is not just white versus black, black versus white. Racism is anyone who judges someone on the basis of skin color or descent. The idea that racism is mainly whites against other races is pervasive, however all groups tend to be racist for some reason or another. Culturally native Japanese tend to be the most racist (your either Japanese or your not) but this in and of itself is a racist idea. Programs like Affirmative action are also extremely racist, rather than removing racism as they intend to do they just hide it just below the surface. So rather than a business owner hiring all whites and making it obvious to his customers he is racist he ends up hiring his required (random numbers not actual statistics) seventy percent white and thirty percent minorities grudgingly. Although this may tend to be preferable to the people that actually get those jobs it is nearly as demeaning to tell someone that they got the job because they are not part of the “majority” as it is to say they can’t get the job for the same reason. Racism that tells people that they are dumb because of their race is the exact same as saying that they need extra help and can’t get what they need on their own because of their race.