Reflection On Social Justice

1135 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Equality freedom essay

In my second semester of seminar, we discussed several texts that dealt with the different types of injustice that our society was facing in the past. Specifically, we discussed Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr., which depicts the oppression that African American individuals were being faced with in the South. King Jr. depicts the feelings of going through oppression as being: “completely drained of self-respect and a sense of "somebodyness" that they have adjusted to segregation…” In this same semester, I was taking my Senior Capstone class for my major in Justice, Community and Leadership and we happened to be reading Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire. I remember specifically a point that Freire made in his book …show more content…

Throughout the course of my major, we focused on environmental responsibility and justice in the global community, and essentially, focusing on studying the relationships between oppression, power, society, education and social change. With that being said, throughout Seminar 102, I found several of our readings to be very comprehensible and applicable to what I was learning in my major classes. For example, Theme for English B by Langston Hughes, The Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson, Maus by Spiegelman and of course, Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr. Since my disciplinary lens for my major focuses on the injustices from our past, current and future society, I always unintentionally take a social justice approach to every text that I …show more content…

I now feel that I have the courage, the means and the readiness to step out into the real world and share this knowledge that I was so fortunate enough to have gained. I have found my worldview to grow and help me change some ideas I had about my future, into whom I know I actually want to be now. Now I really empathize with individuals who are feeling different in our society and find myself standing up for these individuals in social settings, so that it is no longer considered an individual matter. I want to be a teacher and work in areas where children actually need me, in spite of what I will be paid, because I realized it isn’t ever about me, its about the children, the people who generate our future. I want to be able to teach my students about these social inequalities that we face through things like recycling, planting a school garden, educating them on the importance of interdependence and the oppression from our past, and current situations. Ultimately, I want to establish an environment for them that is essentially nothing like the one we are living in, in today’s

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Eula Biss's Essay White Debt

    1779 Words  | 4 Pages

    For as long as I can remember, racial injustice has been the topic of discussion amongst the American nation. A nation commercializing itself as being free and having equality for all, however, one questions how this is true when every other day on the news we hear about the injustices and discriminations of one race over another. Eula Biss published an essay called “White Debt” which unveils her thoughts on discrimination and what she believes white Americans owe, the debt they owe, to a dark past that essentially provided what is out there today. Ta-Nehisi Coates published “Between the World and Me,” offering his perspective about “the Dream” that Americans want, the fear that he faced being black growing up and that black bodies are what

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Washington And W. E. B. Dubois

    1057 Words  | 3 Pages

    During the late 19th and early 20th century, racial injustice was very prominent and even wildly accepted in the South. Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois were two of the most renowned “pioneers in the [search] for African-American equality in America” (Washington, DuBois, and the Black Future). Washington was “born a slave” who highly believed in the concept of “separate but equal,” meaning that “we can be as [distant] as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress” (Washington 1042). DuBois was a victim of many “racial problems before his years as a student” and disagreed with Washington’s point of view, which led

    Read More

  • The Emmett Till: His Murder

    1154 Words  | 3 Pages

    Younge, Gary. "America dreaming: the horrors of segregation bound the US civil rights movement together. Fifty years on from Martin Luther King's great speech, inequality persists--but in subtler ways." New Statesman [1996] 23 Aug. 2013: 20+. Student Resources in Context. Web. 28 Jan. 2014.

    Read More

  • How It Feels To Be Colored Me By Zora Neale Hurston Analysis

    794 Words  | 2 Pages

    The twentieth and twenty-first centuries are filled with victories for many civil rights movements. While they are attempting to achieve the same goal, the methods of various activists and authors vary wildly. Instead of adopting the dominant narrative of condemnation, both Brent Staples and Zora Neale Hurston write about the injustices against themselves without pointing fingers or being held up about it. They would both likely agree that by portraying yourself as the victim and condemning your aggressors, you make less progress than by simply drawing

    Read More

  • Reflective Essay On Social Justice

    662 Words  | 2 Pages

    The task of identifying my social identity was easier said than done. I acknowledged the somewhat privilege I encounter along with the oppression I endure. In retrospect, my social identity unambiguously resembles a coin where on one side oppression lies with dirt rusting but on the flip side privilege stares right back at me, shining bright. I initially could not see the benefits since I’m a low income college student. I became too encompassed with one side of the coin. After we learned what the word, privilege, indeed meant, I realized the various facets of my life in which that word could apply. Self pity can greedily advance on you from out of nowhere thus averting you from flipping the coin. I familiarized with counting my struggles instead of my blessings. In accordance with my social identity I would say I’m privileged with the

    Read More

  • The Ways of Meeting Oppression

    1993 Words  | 4 Pages

    THE WAYS OF MEETING OPPRESSION IS AN ESSAY WRITTEN BY MARTIN LUTHER KING JR., ADDRESSING SEGREGATION THAT IS SPECIFICALLY DIRECTED TOWARD THE AFRICAN AMERICAN AUDIENCE. King’s primary audience is the African Americans, but also he has secondary audiences that he addresses, which are a combination of Christians or those who know of, or believe in the Christian views, as well as people in the legal system. He gives examples through his text that will demonstrate how he addresses mostly the African Americans, but also the various other audiences he is trying to reach to through his memorable speech. In his writing, he tells of three ways that they deal with oppression, and based on these he sends out a message to all who have read or heard his words. This message states what has been done in the past, as well as what should be done based on these past experiences. King chooses to speak to certain people through certain contexts and key phrases. In choosing certain phrases and also on how he states his words, he is successful in influencing all his audiences that he intended to persuade. The words that he carefully chose will tell how and why he wanted to focus on the primary and secondary audiences of his choice.

    Read More

  • Social Justice Reflection

    1025 Words  | 3 Pages

    My definition of social justice in the field of education is based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child and the British-Colombia School Act that state that every child has a right to a proper education (UNICEF, n.d.; School Act, RSBC 1996, c. 412). A proper education to me is based on opportunity. I believe that in order to have a proper education, children should all be entitled to equal opportunity in their learning process. Children should have equal opportunity to obtain the supports that will assist them in achieving their potential.

    Read More

  • Systematic Oppression Essay

    2078 Words  | 5 Pages

    An article from the Odyssey reads, “The systematic oppression that is extremely prevalent in American society today seems to be almost fully directed towards the black community, only creating a wider gap between the government and them” (Yeltchev). Oppression creeps into the smallest aspects of life, from day-to-day harassment to a rejected job or college application. *Undeniable traces of systematic oppression have been discovered, from the Jim Crow laws in 1877 to police brutality throughout the 60’s, persisting to this day. In his famous “I Have A Dream” speech, Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. referenced systematic oppression as follows: “There are those of you who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality” (King). *While the frequency of Police Brutality may have drastically decreased since this speech was given, systematic oppression and racism towards African Americans still lingers and shapes the decisions of too many citizens. Modern racial prejudice is dismissed by bigots, inoculating Americans against what sense of injustice they might have (Gergi). However, “This has not solved the problems of inequality and prejudice, but merely disguised them… To address such problems of racial discrimination, Americans must first know and accept the continuing depth of prejudice in American society”

    Read More

  • Is Poverty A Social Justice Issue

    545 Words  | 2 Pages

    Poverty is a major social justice issue across the world. In America alone, 14.5% of the population live below the poverty line. Not only is poverty an issue alone, but it also causes other social justice issues. Poverty causes other social justice issues because in impoverished areas there is an increased rate of crime, there are bad health conditions, and education is below average.

    Read More

  • A Social Justice Perspective On Poverty

    329 Words  | 1 Pages

    Poverty for certain people isn’t a choice because they are sometimes brought into the world with struggles that prevent them from being capable of providing food, clothing, and a home for themselves or their family. However, some people try to get things that can benefit them or other people by trying to live a regular life and acquire the necessary things, like education and food. According to “A Social Justice Perspective on Poverty”, "A person’s capability to acquire the food necessary for survival, to achieve upward mobility, or to ensure education for one’s children, determine whether or not they can be considered poor" ("A Social Justice Perspective on Poverty"). According to The Salvation Army article, in order to be considered poor,

    Read More

  • Social Justice In Social Work

    781 Words  | 2 Pages

    Social justice is a core value in the social work field. We define social justice as, “all citizens would possess equal fundamental rights, protection, opportunities, obligations and social benefits (Kirst-Ashman & Hull, 2015, p. 29). Unfortunately, we understand there are many members in today’s society that are not receiving social justice. Some may not want help and believe that s/he is able to do it on their own and then there are the individuals that we may not know about that could really use our help. Our jobs as social workers is to help those who need help no matter if they are rich, poor, disabled, white, Hispanic, it does not matter because everyone should be treated equally. As NASW states, “The original mission of social work had much to do with championing the rights of society’s most vulnerable members, from children to homeless people to the physically disabled” (NASW: National Association of Social Workers, 2015, para. 1).

    Read More

  • Social Justice In Education

    607 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Social Justice in Education” by R. W. Connell discusses the role of education in society and the implications that social justice issues have on education. Connell begins by establishing that education and social justice can be examined separately yet they are inescapably linked through the social medium of their implementation. “Education concerns schools, colleges and universities, whose business is to pass knowledge on to the next generation. Social justice is about income, employment, pensions or physical assets like housing.”(Connell, 1993) Three points validating the equal importance of social justice and the education system to people of all delineations are: 1.) in Western society public schools are key forums of social interaction and comprise some of the largest social institutions 2.) educational institutions are highly economic bodies and have become “major public assets” (Connell, 1993) 3.) teaching becomes a vehicle by which society is ultimately determined and has a great influence over society’s morality. Connell describes the meaning of justice in education as being “a question of fairness in distribution… equality.”(Connell, 1993) “Justice cannot be achieved by distributing the same… standard good to… all social classes.”(Connell, 1993) By stating this, Connell summarizes that in the attempt to achieve equality, unequal means must be employed.

    Read More

  • Social Justice Action Reflection

    632 Words  | 2 Pages

    My Social Justice Action Plan Initiative was an informative video created in collaboration with Elena Bowers. The purpose of our video was to shed light upon the unfair stigmatization surrounding mental illnesses in society. Overall, aiming to combat a multitude of mental illness stereotypes, and aspiring to incite conversation and understanding amongst our community, enabling individuals to reach out for help.

    Read More

  • Social Justice

    529 Words  | 2 Pages

    The journey of identifying the opponents of justice, which are hiding under the shadow of development, seems to be tricky. The document “Justice in the World” (JW) was shortly issued by the 1971 synod, [just a few months after Octogesima Adveniens (EN) issued in May 1971], showed a shift of understanding or disagreement within the Church in some controversial aspects of social justice. “Structural injustice” is identified as “a network of domination, oppression, and abuses” (JW 3) and “international systems” of domination (JW 13). I like the way that the document puts, “Action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world [... is] a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel” (JW 6, emphasis added). Although the term “constitutive” caused

    Read More

  • Social Justice Definition Essay

    904 Words  | 2 Pages

    Social justice is a word which could have many possible meanings, there isn’t one definition which could describe this word, depending on what type of a person you are you might have a different definition of social justice for example someone from the government might see the meaning of social justice way different than a normal human being. If I were to define social justice I would say it’s to promote a just society, it exists when people share a common humanity and therefore have a right to equitable treatment and a fair allocation of community services. In condition of social justice, people are "not be discriminated against, nor their welfare and well-being constrained or prejudiced on the basis of gender, sexuality, religion, political affiliations, age, race,

    Read More

More about Reflection On Social Justice

Open Document