Social Justice Oriented Citizen Summary

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Introduction
As a new University of Virginia coalition begins to take form, it is the hope of the author that this new group follows Amanda E. Vickery conception of citizenship, and realizes the potential value in creating social justice-oriented citizens. In order to fully expand on this recommendation this paper will discuss multiple areas of interest in order to promote the idea of cultivating social justice-oriented citizens at the University of Virginia; Characteristics of Social Justice Oriented Citizens, Universities of Virginia’s existing Neoliberal structure, Recommendations. If these aims are achieved one could imagine an increase in African American Enrollment at the University of Virginia.
Characteristics of Social Justice Oriented …show more content…

Vickery and her work, It was never meant for us: Towards a black feminist construct of citizenship in social studies. In this piece, Vickery defines citizenship as a “set of practices (judicial, political, economic, and cultural) which define a person as a competent member of society.” Furthermore, citizenship is seen as a social structure that is influenced by power structures and in many cases these power structures have been the source of inequality.
Social justice-oriented citizens are people who work to critically assess these existing structures, identify the problems within, and create systemic change within the system. Vickery speaks of this, “citizens are attuned to issues of injustice in their communities and the interplay of structural forces that contribute to societal inequities.” Vickery sees social oriented-citizens as a unique force who can combat systems that allow certain groups to be discriminated …show more content…

E. B. Du bois. Sumpter said this of W. E. B. Du bois, He believed firmly that if a particular minority were designated as inferior, the entire democratic structure would be weakened. Accordingly, for democracy to exist there could be no tolerance of racial discrimination, poverty,, or inequality in educational opportunities. Only when everyone is equal in fact could a real democracy exist
It is clear that the democratic structure at UVA has been weakened through the inequality in educational opportunities for African American students. The current neoliberal admission structure has cultivated this lack of diversity within the University of Virginia. For this reason the author recommends two essential goals for this new coalition. These two goals are for teachers to incorporate personal experience and to further study the discriminatory history of the University of Virginia.
First, in order to fix the existing structures we need teachers to rely on their personal experiences of navigating these structures. Vickery backs this

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