Sources & Extracts

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Aaron Wildavsky makes the following comment on equality in The Rise of Radical Egalitarianism. Although Wildavsky is speaking from a rather different perspective than Malik, his point is still relevant.
Americans are able to agree about the desirability of "equality" because they mean different things by it. Equality before the law (or equal rights) signifies that people in similar positions will have similar legal standing, so that administrative and judicial decisions will be uniform and predictable. Equality of opportunity signifies the ability to enter contests of various kinds and to keep the proceeds, providing only that one does not prevent others from trying. Equality of condition (or outcome, or result) means that the resources possessed by individuals and groups in society should be roughly equivalent. Rights, opportunity, and outcome are worlds apart - so distant in practice that it have proved expedient for many to deny the full extent of the differences.
Reference: Aaron Wildavsky The Rise of Radical Egalitarianism, p. 171.