Reflection Paper #1

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1 Prompt 1: Social Injustice Fahad Khawaji SOC-500-01 September 8, 2023

2 Social Justice Social justice is a fair principle that guides people to create balanced rights, treatment, and freedom to all people (Hytten & Bettez, 2011). Social justice guides people in building coordinated human cooperation known as institutions, which help people to know what is expected of them and their association with other individuals, for personal and social development. My definition of social justice entails is that it is the fair division of resources, privileges, and opportunities in the society to ensure that every group is treated equally and fairly hence eliminating discrimination and inequalities. Some of the areas where social justice applies is in housing, healthcare, employment, and the criminal justice system ( Opotow, 2011) . Core principles and values that underlie social justice. Social justice is a concept that is guided by key principles which guide the conduct of the various institutions and people. The principles and values that help to better understand the concept of social justice include: 1. Access to resources This is a principle which explains the extent to which different associations get equal access to resources as well as the advantage they can obtain from a certain resource. Although many societies offer several resources for their people such food, education, recreation activities, shelter, not all people have access to such services ( Matthew 2017). 2. Equity This social justice principle explains how individuals are provided or given what they need to be successful. Individuals are given services according to their wants with the aim of

3 achieving similar outcomes. Needs or services that are equitable may not be equal due to different levels of needs between individuals (Hytten & Bettez, 2011). 3. Participation Participation refers to how every individual in a community or a society is given an equal chances or opportunities to give out their thoughts and ideas and have the capacity in decision making. Everyone in the society should have equal chances to voice over their opinions and concerns in making a certain decision ( Matthew 2017) . 4. Diversity Diversity is having varying cultures, race, ethnicity, gender, social class, age or physical ability. Diversity as a principle of social justice explains why understanding that people have varieties in most of the things in a community is important. For example, while making policies one has to consider the fact that some people face more problems in the society, so they have to make policies that favor different groups in the society ( Opotow, 2011) . 5. Human rights Refers to principles or norms that apply to every individual regardless of where they are from or their beliefs. Most of the human rights are practiced in the laws that give freedom of speech, right to vote, criminal justice rights and other more basic rights. Therefore, the level in which these basic human rights are observed in a society is a greater determinant of the level of social justice in the society ( Dimitriou & Christidou, 2011) .

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4 Structural and systematic factors that perpetuate social injustices. There are several structural and systematic factors that cause social injustice to hold root in the society. These factors include economic injustices, political disempowerment, racism, discrimination, environmental injustice, and criminal justice system inequalities. 1. Economic injustices Social injustice occurs when there is a difference in incomes and wealth in a society or when income is distributed unevenly. The wealthy people have more opportunities compared to the poor people and this can limit their upward mobility ( Dimitriou & Christidou, 2011). Some of economic injustices include gender wage gaps, racial discrimination at work. 2. Political disempowerment Political disempowerment and disenfranchisement is still present in America despite the constitution making it a legal right for every adult to vote. Recent practices such as gerrymandering which entails redrawing the electrical districts aims at making some peoples votes to matter less compared to others hence denying them full representation. This lack of representations means that their rights and needs are not well addressed, and this creates social injustices (DiTomaso, 2021) . 3. Racism Racism refers to treating one unequally due to the person’s skin color or their ethnic background ( Matthew, 2017). Segregating one because of their skin color perpetuates social injustice because the segregated persons will be denied access to certain resources, have their rights and freedom violated.

5 4. Discrimination Discrimination refers to treating a group of people unfairly compared to other group of people in areas such as gender, religion, race, work sexual disparities. Discrimination is one of the main causes that tend to increase the chances of social injustice to happen (Matthew, 2017). Discrimination gives people the chance to compete unfairly with others hence an ‘us versus them’ situation. The ‘us versus them’ situation often leads to unequal treatment between individuals. 5. Environmental injustice Environmental injustice refers to the effect of pollution and contamination on areas that are inhabited by the outnumbered or the impoverished communities. The poor are linked mainly to living in poor and hazardous environments ( Dimitriou & Christidou, 2011) . These communities may be affected by toxic substances from industries and may experience harsh climate events as well as adverse health effects. A good example is the Cancer Alley in Mississippi River which is a stretch of around 10km which is inhabited by poor communities such as African Americans who have been exposed to health issues due to the disproportionately large number of petrochemical companies in this area who massively pollute the air and water (DiTomaso, 2021) . Environmental injustice is a factor that contributes to social injustice as every individual should live in a safe and clean environment. 6. Criminal justice system inequalities The criminal justice system in the United States has been a major perpetrator of social injustices. Having harsh punishment to some groups, for example, the Blacks is an act of social injustice as all citizens who have gone against the law should face fare judgment without

6 discriminating any of them. African Americans have a higher chance of getting a violent arrest or even killed by policed and sentenced to longer sentences compared to Whites for similar offences. How institutional policies, historical legacies and power dynamics contribute to maintaining inequality Institutional policies can maintain inequality mostly when these policies are favoring the people in high positions or the majority, hence discriminating other individuals either in terms of their race, ethnicity, or economic background. In institutional policies, making decisions maybe limited to the people in authority meaning that the others will have to adhere to the rules whether they were involved or not. When these policies continue for over a long period of time, they may cause a group of people to be deprived of their rights. Institutional policies can also have an impact on access to education, health, or any other resources. Additionally institutional policies may cause inadequate or unequal representation hence some people will not be represented and their needs and wants will not be fully taken care of. Again, having unequal representation shows that some policies may have favored a certain group of people and other groups will have less access to resources. This causes discrimination which is a key factor to social injustice (Tchida & Stout, 2023) . Historical legacies that have been historically discriminating a certain group of individuals still have an impact today. An historical legacy which has the main impact in how certain groups such as Africans Americans are treated in the society is slavery. Ever since during the times of slavery, Blacks were denied basic rights such as voting, they would be severely punished for simple mistakes and would even be imprisoned on false allegations. Despite the end of slavery, some of these historical legacies are still present in the society. The denial of

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7 voting of rights during the times of slavery is present in the current society through gerrymandering to deny African Americans and other minor courts the chances of representation in the democracy. Furthermore, the historical legacies of excessive and discriminative punishment of Black slaves is still present in the society through the disproportionate arrests and sentencing of African Americans (DiTomaso, 2021). Power dynamics, exercising power and authority in a society can at some point favor a certain group over the other. The failure of some people to participate in an activity, for instance in decision making, can have a group to be left out and their problems not addressed thus causing inequality. Power dynamics is the main reason gerrymandering is done so that minor communities’ voices are suppressed by the larger communities in power (DiTomaso, 2021) How institutional policies, historical legacies and power dynamics intersect and reinforce each other Institutional policies, historical legacies and power dynamics intersect and reinforce each other hence perpetrating injustices. Most institutions tend to uphold and use policies that were there before in historical times hence leading to historical legacies being present in modern day institutions (Tchida & Stout, 2023) . A good example, as previously stated , is the historic legacies used in making criminal justice field during slavery times which are still used in institutional policy making in modern day justice institutions. Additionally, those in power use these institutional policies and historical legacies to make decisions without engaging those who are not in power, just as it was during historical times. The failure to engage other people in decision making leads to a repetition of values and norms because those in power do not know which policy or law has a negative effect on the

8 people. Additionally, those in power only think about the majority, whom they think are the only people who elected them hence forgetting about the poor, vulnerable and minority communities ( Tchida & Stout, 2023) . Conclusion Social justice is the fair division of resources, privileges, and opportunities in the society to ensure that every group is treated equally and hence eliminating discrimination and inequalities. Some of the key principles and values in social justice include access to resources, equity, participation, diversity, and human rights. The structural and systematic factors that perpetuate social injustice in the society include economic injustices, political disempowerment, racism, discrimination, environmental injustice, and criminal justice system inequalities. Lastly, the intersection of institutional policies, historical legacies and power dynamics intersect and reinforce each other hence perpetrating injustices.

9 References DiTomaso, N. (2021). Why difference makes a difference: Diversity, inequality, and institutionalization. Journal of Management Studies , 58 (8), 2024-2051. Dimitriou, A., & Christidou, V. (2011). Causes and consequences of air pollution and environmental injustice as critical issues for science and environmental education. The Impact of Air Pollution on Health, Economy, Environment and Agricultural Sources , 215- 238. Hytten, K., & Bettez, S. C. (2011). Understanding education for social justice. Educational foundations , 25 , 7-24. Matthew, D. C. (2017). Racial Injustice, Racial Discrimination, and Racism: How Are They Related?. Social Theory and Practice , 885-914. Opotow, S. (2011). Social injustice. The encyclopedia of peace psychology . Tchida, C. V., & Stout, M. (2023). Disempowerment versus empowerment: Analyzing power dynamics in professional community development. Community Development , 1-21.

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Reflection Paper #1

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