The Social Justice Castastrophe
In the article Measuring the Justice cap, World Justice Project states “253 million people [today] live in extreme conditions of injustice. This includes people who are stateless, victims of modern slavery, and people who live in fragile states with high levels of insecurity.” This statistic shows that social injustice is still present today despite the fact that we have grown immensely as a society. Social injustice is all around us, we all experience it whether we are young or old, and it seems as though we will never truly get rid of it. In the following paragraphs, I will talk about social justice and injustice in books and in my life. I will also talk about how I believe we can bring and keep social justice in society.
When thinking about social justice in books, I recall the book Animal Farm by George Orwell. In this book, they focus on the class system, what each class does, a "government”, and other things that make up a society. Social justice is about everyone having equal opportunities, whoever they may be. In this book, the animals on the farm rebel against Mr. Jones, who is the dictator of the farm. They rebel with the idea of fighting for equal rights for everyone, which shows social justice. At first when they had overthrown Mr Jones, every animal seemed happy and equal. However soon enough, other animals (the pigs) had taken control of the farm and had made themselves seem better than the other animals. Thus, the idea of social justice was lost in their society and again, social injustice prevailed. Animal Farm represents our world quite well, and if our world continues to go this way, then I believe that social injustice will never truly perish.
As a 10th grader, the definition of social justice that comes in mind is an act that helps bring light to marginalized groups and people who are treated unfairly. In my experience, I had experienced both social justice and social injustice in my life, whether it had affected me personally or not. One example of social justice in my life is the BLM movement. This was a major movement that called attention to racism and discrimination. It had also advocated for anti-racism. Even though I wasn’t personally involved with the movement, it had helped make me learn more about the problems in our society (such as racism) and had helped me be more aware of the social injustice around me. Aside from social justice, I have also experienced social injustice in my life. At my elementary/middle school, we lacked things other schools had. For example, many of the classrooms didn’t have an AC, while some didn’t even have fans! This made it harder for me and my peers to focus on our work during the summer, since we were hot and sweaty. Another example is that many classrooms did not have certain essential textbooks, while the classrooms that had textbooks often found them to be old and damaged. Since this school is a public school, we didn’t get the same materials and privileges private schools got. These were some examples of social justice and injustice that affected my life.
Throughout my life, I have had many experiences with both social justice and injustice. Now that I am older, I better understand what it is and I do have a few ideas as to how we can help social justice flourish in our society and get rid of social injustice. Though I have stated we can't completely get rid of social injustice, we can help make less of it in our society. One way we can do this is by giving equal opportunities for jobs, education, and other things to people no matter what gender, race or identity. Doing this would already get rid of so much injustice in our world. Another thing we can do is provide essential materials of survival for families/individuals. These materials can include food, clothes, shelter, money, and other necessities based on their needs. Using donations and money from the government, we could provide those with less. These are some things we can do to lessen social injustice. However, even if we were to implement these things in our society, we would still have a long way to go to at least get rid of a portion of social injustice in our society.
There are many things we could do to make less of social injustice in our society, however there are also many factors to consider. First of all, we need to make sure that social justice in our society doesn't stay temporarily. Many times in history and books, we see that social justice is done only temporarily. Often, they were done for the benefit of someone/something else without actually doing social justice for the sake of society. For example, in the book When I was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago, they talk about how these people had given free food and things to people right before the elections. The free items were removed as soon as the elections were done. They had given these things because they wanted to persuade the people to vote for a certain person running for the election. This isn't the social justice we want. In order to really make social justice stay in society, we have to have the true intent of making a better of society. Another factor we need to consider is the people; who will it affect and how will it affect them? It is also essential to ask the question; What side effects may this type of social change cause? A lot of times, social justice can have both its pros and cons. It can help recognize certain groups of people, while still ignoring many others. It can also bring down certain people while trying to lift up others. This can further imbalance our society. These are some things we should consider when trying to bring social justice.
Throughout history, we see social justice and injustice in our society. In the previous paragraphs, I talked about social justice/injustice in books, in my life, what this means to me, and what we can do to keep social justice in our society. As I have stated previously, we can never truly abolish social injustice in our society, however we can make less of it. It may take a lot of work, but if we all play our part to bring social justice into society, then we can look forward to a better society.
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I feel like using evidence from the book and evidence from your life adds so much more depth to the essay it makes it so much more better I really like it.
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The author writing about their own experience and using descriptive language really adds to the understanding of the author’s views of social justice and injustice
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I like how they described it with powerful imagery when telling their personal examples of social injustice. For example, how their middle school was disadvantaged and how it affected them.
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The paragraph about other factors in social justice is well explained. It provides the reader with new ideas and different perspectives. Overall the essay talks about what social justice is and how it affects our lives.
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I liked the amount of textual evidence used in this essay. Being able to tie in multiple sources really improved my understanding of the essay. Overall, the style in which you used while writing made the essay enjoyable to read.
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I like how you used many different settings to talk about social justice. You used fiction, personal experiences, and other real world experiences.I liked how in your conclusion you acknowledged the fact that social injustice will always be a parent and that everyone needs to work towards bringing more justice than injustice in our society.
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