Defining Social Justice And Social Injustice

By Sarah Ward


If you are born in today's world financially and socially disadvantaged, upward mobility is a difficult hill to climb. In many areas of this world, the United States included, opportunities for wealth and a life of ease are the prerogative of just a few. This is totally contrary to the concept of social justice, which is the idea that privilege, wealth, and opportunity should be available, equally, for everyone.

This concept did not emerge on the world scene until the mid-nineteenth century. This was the time of the Industrial Revolution and of other civil rebellions occurring throughout Europe. The focus during this period was on property, capital, and the fair distribution of wealth.

It took another hundred years for the concept to expand. This time it included gender, environment, ethnicity, and race. It was also expanded from primarily a governmental issue, creating an atmosphere conducive to an equal society, into the responsibility private citizens have for human victims no matter where in the world they are.

The experts break down the issues that prevent a just society into two parts. The first involves how society treats some individuals based entirely on their own personal bias, misinformation, fear, and prejudice. This is the case when people are treated unequally just because they are of a different race, religion, age, social status, ethnicity, or have mental or physical disabilities.

Unequal government regulations is the second part experts cite. This is when a government, knowingly or not, creates conditions that deny, limit, or make it difficult for certain segments of society to have access to opportunities given to other segments of the same society. This can be voting laws that allow redistricting and require voters to have certain forms of identification. It might be labor laws that limit the rights of workers.

Laws pertaining to the environment that have loopholes allowing industrial waste to pollute rivers and lakes where communities get their drinking water and pollute the air those communities breathe is an example of injustice condoned by local, state, and federal governments. In the United States, people of specific nationalities and races are more likely to be detained by law enforcement.

Unjust treatment by societies is divided into two categories, the direct and the indirect. Direct inequality comes about when individuals within a society deny rights and opportunities to certain individuals and not to others. An example might be the owner of a public restaurant who refuses to sit individuals in the dining area because of what that owner perceives is their sexual orientation. Direct inequality is also segregating schools and public facilities based on race.

When the government enacts laws that do not directly inhibit the rights of individuals, but in fact do, that is indirect inequality. An example might be laws that restrict mail in voting and require specific voter identification. When you buy clothing manufactured in sweatshops, you are supporting people who victimize laborers.




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