Challenge Reality's Control
Martin Luther King, a respected social justice leader, once said: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” When people turn a blind eye to problems happening around the world, it turns into something from a simple argument about who did what into fistfights that hurt both parties involved. Social justice is believing that everyone should be treated fairly, have fair opportunities and equal rights. It is believing that no one is inherently superior to another and fair treatment should be granted to everyone. Everyone should believe and practice social justice because no one wants to go through injustice. Many have experienced it multiple times, such as in job opportunities or in daily treatment. Those who seek to change the unfairness do so by writing about it, learning about it, and some even working to change it. Despite this, injustice is still everywhere.
Throughout my life I have faced many injustices. I have seen many people curse at my family and fabricate stories just to bring them trouble, believing that just because my parents couldn’t speak English very well, they could bully them and get away with it. I always hated witnessing so many people scamming, stealing, making promises they knew they would never fulfill, and making a mess for others to clean up after them. I remember when I was a child, I saw people shake the shelves of my family's small business and only stop when everything fell off because they didn't get their way. I have also seen people throw heavy rocks at the windows to break them, leaving my family to close the shop and my dad to buy a new window, even though my family was short on money. Even though this happened often, it never failed to leave a sour taste in my mouth. This is why I never go out of my way to disrespect anyone and why I am wary of everyone I meet. No one wants to experience these tragedies, to be treated like trash that isn’t welcome and not a person to be respected. Despite this, people treat others that way anyway. It's not fair that some people get to take the hard work of others, make a mess to make someone's day worse, and get away with it.
With so many issues in the world, there are bound to be those who notice. Many people see the world around them and believe in social justice, but only a few try to do something about the problems. Those who do usually take action in the form of writing, be it books, newspapers, or online articles to spread awareness. An example of this is the story Animal Farm by George Orwell, which criticized the Russian Revolution. In the book, the original owner of what was once Manor Farm, Jones, starved and mistreated his animals. When the animals decided they had had enough and fought against Jones and his men, they acted as though the rebellion was unwarranted. Jones then told others about the “monstrous injustice he had suffered in being turned out of his property by a pack of good-for-nothing animals” (Orwell 37). Jones treated his animals awfully and when he suffered the same, he became really upset about it. This isn't fair and it's hypocritical. It has always been the animals that work for the crops yet Jones takes all the fruits of their labor and starves them. The animals didn't even get to eat the food they worked hard to grow. This relates to things that happen in the real world: people stealing from others, hurting others, and the lack of help from those who know what is happening but have normalized it. Even if something bad happens so often it becomes normal, people should fight to change that. We should fight so that no one has to live in a place where the norm is bad things happening all the time.
Despite all this, no one can help or know how to help anyone if they don't know the problem exists. Therefore, to make this world a better place, those who want to help should educate themselves and others on the problems around them. They could read the news, read books on social injustice, or join a club and discuss it with the people around them. Then they can then think of ways to help get rid of or minimize problems as much as possible. People can also simply just try not to slander one another and if they see or hear someone saying something wrong, point it out and correct them. When I realize I have been doing something wrong, I always try to fix it. Sometimes, when I am told something I didn’t know or asked a complicated question, I will think about it throughout the day until I have it figured out. Something as simple as saying a few words can have a big impact on someone. Not only does it let the other person know that they were wrong, it might also lead them to thinking about what else they have done that was wrong, and if there is a way to fix it.
At the end of the day, education is important to make people understand each other. The lack of information is part of the reason why stereotypes about minorities are often wrong. If we increase the information going around, we are less likely to offend or hurt someone. Social justice is believing that everyone should be treated fairly, have fair opportunities and equal rights. Social justice is believing that no one is inherently superior to another and fair treatment should be granted to everyone. If something bad happens around me, I would talk to the people around me or simply my friends to spread awareness. I would also join clubs that support the minorities and those that fight against oppression of certain groups. To make sure that justice is upheld, we can put up "did-you-know" posters and educate people on the situations of those who are not given justice. That way people would understand what those who were wronged and hurt feel and have to go through. This would help people empathize with each other and make them less likely to hurt someone unintentionally. We can make the world a better place by not doing what we don't want others to do to us and not excluding any one from group activities or rejecting a specific group of people for an opportunity any one can take. There are so many things we can do to minimize misunderstandings and social injustice and most, if not all, of them don’t cost anything. With all this in mind, everyone should practice social justice.
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Paragraph 2 really shows your personal experience and how it affects what social justice is to you
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It’s sad seeing that the author had to go through something like this at such a young age. It truly pains me to see people mistreating people who can’t speak English well and manipulate their way through these situations. Just because someone doesn’t speak your language, doesn’t make them any less of a human being.
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This paragraph is really good because it clearly highlights the similarities from the book to the main point that the author is making. I don’t think I have any suggestions for changing the structure or wording of this paragraph.
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I agree that people can’t help you if they don’t know the situation. Most people assume the situation which is terrible and can lead to the situation deescalating. I feel like this is the number one reason why people fight.
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I liked the sense of personality that this article had. The experiences told in this piece really accentuated the message.
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It’s sad to see how this happens in our society for such small things.
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The personal experience used does a good job at evoking emotion in the essay. As the author describes how they have faced injustice, it provokes an emotional feeling as we read. I like how it also wraps around to talk about how it affected the author and what they would do to uphold social justice.
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While reading this I felt a sense of empathy for hard-working people who get discriminated against for no real reason. I like how you include past events that you have seen which impacted how you see things today and how you feel about certain things.
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