“Citizenship, even in its early forms, was a principle of equality and that during this period it was a developing institution. Starting at the point where all men were free and in theory, capable of enjoying rights, it grew by enriching the body of rights which they were capable of enjoying. But these rights did not conflict with the inequalities of capitalist society, they were on the contrary necessary to the maintenance of that particular form of inequality. “

What I believe Marshall is explaining in this passage is that since the beginning of the term citizenship, it was made to treat every one equal. When he sates, “during this period it was a developing institution” I feel like he is trying to justified the term citizenship if people did not get treated equal during that particular time. Every men were free with rights that they enjoyed.

I picked this passage because I used to think the word citizenship meant a lot more than what I do now. Before I became a citizen, I saw citizenship as a privilege, something that was an honor to be. It was a representation of my country and an honor to be a citizen of the best country in the world. Citizenship was supposed to treat every single citizen equal with education, jobs, health care and other social rights like marriages, etc. I do not agree that every single person is treated equal because we do not have the same education in every state or even in every borough. Some areas have better school system and better teachers.  Some jobs offer health care while most don’t and to qualified for free health insurance you have to meet certain requirements that most people cannot meet. Many states still have not legalized same same sex marriages. Back in the day, we had slavery where colored people did not have any rights; even after emancipation, they were still treated unequal. We can still see people treat color people different to this day even though they have “rights” now.