The world's population seems to be more divided than before between great wealth and abject poverty. The chances of getting ahead if you come from an impoverished background are becoming fewer and fewer. It seems that wealth, privilege, and opportunity are open to only a select group. The opposite of this scenario is social justice. This is the idea that access to the possibility of wealth, opportunity, and privilege should be open to every human being.
The idea of a just society was the invention of the nineteenth century. It appeared during the Industrial Revolution and the civil revolutions that occurred throughout Europe. At this time the focus was on property, the equitable distribution of wealth, and capital.
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 issues that plague the dream of a just society can be broken down into two basic parts. The first is the way society treats certain individuals based solely on personal prejudice, bias, misinformation, and fear. This is where unequal treatment of individuals based on their gender, race, ethnicity, age, religion, education, social status, and physical and mental disabilities, comes in to the picture.
Governments that enact unjust laws and regulations are the other part. When governments, deliberately or not, create certain conditions that have the effect of denying or limiting part of the population from accessing the same opportunities given to other parts of the population they are promoting injustice. Labor laws limiting workers' rights is one example. Another is gerrymandering and requiring voters to product certain identifying documentation in order to vote.
It can also include environmental laws that favor industrial conglomerates by not restricting how they pollute the air a community breaths or the water it drinks. In the United States, some schools are still segregated by race. In some regions of America, people of a certain race or nationality are more likely to be stopped and harassed by law enforcement.
Experts break down the ways in which society treats certain individuals unequally into direct and indirect. Direct inequality comes about when people deny certain rights and opportunities to some and not to others. If the owner of a public restaurant bars diners from eating at his establishment based on their sexual orientation, that is direct inequality. Segregated schools and public facilities that deny access to certain individuals with the consent of the government is another example.
Indirect inequality happens when governmental regulations are put in place that don't have specific language inhibiting the rights of a segment of the population, but have the effect of doing just that. Laws limiting mail in voting and voter identification are an example of this. Buying clothing that was manufactured in sweatshops supports the unsafe conditions of the laborers who work in them.
The idea of a just society was the invention of the nineteenth century. It appeared during the Industrial Revolution and the civil revolutions that occurred throughout Europe. At this time the focus was on property, the equitable distribution of wealth, and capital.
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 issues that plague the dream of a just society can be broken down into two basic parts. The first is the way society treats certain individuals based solely on personal prejudice, bias, misinformation, and fear. This is where unequal treatment of individuals based on their gender, race, ethnicity, age, religion, education, social status, and physical and mental disabilities, comes in to the picture.
Governments that enact unjust laws and regulations are the other part. When governments, deliberately or not, create certain conditions that have the effect of denying or limiting part of the population from accessing the same opportunities given to other parts of the population they are promoting injustice. Labor laws limiting workers' rights is one example. Another is gerrymandering and requiring voters to product certain identifying documentation in order to vote.
It can also include environmental laws that favor industrial conglomerates by not restricting how they pollute the air a community breaths or the water it drinks. In the United States, some schools are still segregated by race. In some regions of America, people of a certain race or nationality are more likely to be stopped and harassed by law enforcement.
Experts break down the ways in which society treats certain individuals unequally into direct and indirect. Direct inequality comes about when people deny certain rights and opportunities to some and not to others. If the owner of a public restaurant bars diners from eating at his establishment based on their sexual orientation, that is direct inequality. Segregated schools and public facilities that deny access to certain individuals with the consent of the government is another example.
Indirect inequality happens when governmental regulations are put in place that don't have specific language inhibiting the rights of a segment of the population, but have the effect of doing just that. Laws limiting mail in voting and voter identification are an example of this. Buying clothing that was manufactured in sweatshops supports the unsafe conditions of the laborers who work in them.
About the Author:
When you are looking for information about social justice, come to our web pages online today. More details are available at http://www.one-race.org/about-2 now.
No comments:
Post a Comment