Can Understanding Our Differences Unite Us in Social Justice?
Social justice is the equal distribution of rights and opportunities given to every single person ensuring a good quality of life. We need social justice as a guideline as to what a person can do, however, injustices hinder that fairness and equity. Tony Honore, a lawyer, advocated that “Equality of opportunity is the essence of social justice.” These injustices are created through stereotypes, where people believe differences are something to be ashamed of instead of celebrated. Everyone faces injustice, and I believe that there are certain measures we can take to stop it for good as well as spread awareness that our differences make us stronger.
Lunchtime during my 5th grade year was the first time I faced injustice against my culture. I opened my lunchbox to find one of my favorite foods, sabudana khichdi, which was fried tapioca balls seasoned with spices, splashed in lemon juice, and garnished with cilantro. The steam sprayed my face as I salivated. However, the aroma that I experienced was a thick odor to my peers. They mocked my food, saying how gross it looked and smelled and why I was eating it. As I tried explaining that it is a significant part of my culture, their insults kept shooting at me like a water gun. The mockery got bad enough to the point where I had to escape their hate and find refuge at another table. This didn’t stop their constant insults and ridicule though, and I wished they had found a better approach to new food instead of just complaining and mocking.
The insults that I faced were against my culture, which is called cultural racism. In A Pho Love Story, Bao, a Vietnamese-American, sees firsthand how a white customer insults his mom for her accent and how she handles business. His racist remarks reached the internet, where Bao read, “-if they’re going to open businesses here, they should at least speak English, since they can’t even do that, they should go back to where they belong” (Le, Page 338). Like most immigrants who come to America, Bao’s mom’s English isn’t very good. It caused the white man, Jared, to yell and post negative reviews about her and her restaurant. This is obviously wrong, not just because the hate comment ridiculed their English, but it also told them to go back to Vietnam, making it both racist and xenophobic.
No matter where someone comes from, they all deserve equal rights as people. Every injustice in the world can be prevented if we take the right steps together. People need to educate themselves and others about other cultures, languages, food, and customs. Not everyone is going to teach us about the world, so we should take that first step, especially since we have resources like the Internet to do so. We also need to respect each other's differences, not because it’s the right thing to do, but because, “a garden's beauty never lies in one flower”(Matshona Dhliwayo). Spreading awareness throughout my community at school and shining light onto topics rarely talked about plays a key role to solving this injustice. We need to come together and show that diverse minds can think alike, because doing nothing is an injustice itself.
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I can agree with you on this paragraph because when I was younger, I would also get mocked and made fun of by my peers for the way my food smelled and looked like. But instead of trying to fix the mockery, I started throwing away my food so that it wouldn’t smell
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I found this paragraph to be really understanding because as an Asian-American, I’ve heard multiple stories about our food being criticized by non-Asian people. From these stories, I’ve realized that these comments have impacts on people feelings about their own culture.
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This metaphor, “their insults kept shooting at me like a water gun” really shows how the others acted towards the author and adds to the author talking about their personal experience.
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I often see people talking about their experience expecting people to side with them. It’s honestly pathetic and it really shows how people like them never admit that they’re in the wrong and take to the internet to get people to back them up.
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I liked the personal experiences shared in this essay. It allowed for me to further understand where your opinion in this essay came from, and appreciate it more. Overall, this essay was very well-written and informative.
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