The world seems to be more sharply divided than ever between the haves and the have nots. Wealth, opportunity, and privilege in many parts of the world, including the United States, seems to be the prerogative of a select few. Social justice on the other hand is the concept of everyone having the same access to the possibilities of wealth, opportunities, and privileges.
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.
In the middle of the twentieth century the idea started to expand. Gender, nationality, race, and environmental equality were included. The concept also expanded from just a governmental responsibility to create an equal society to include personal responsibility for alleviating the unjust conditions suffered by victims all over the world.
The drawbacks to establishing a truly equal society are broken down by experts into two basic parts. One is the way individuals in mainstream society treat others based only on personal bias, prejudice, fear, and misinformation. Examples of this are people who are treated unequally because of their gender, age, race, religion, social status, education, nationality, or mental and physical disabilities.
Unjust governmental laws are the second part of the equation. These are law put in place, knowingly or unknowingly, that create conditions that limit, deny, or make it hard for some segments of the population to access opportunities freely given to other segments of the population. Examples of these are voting laws that redistrict certain areas to sway elections in favor of one party and laws that require specific types of identification in order for a person to be allowed into the polling booths.
Environmental laws, or the lack thereof, that allow industries to dispose of waste in the lakes and rivers that a community relies on for drinking water is another example of governmental injustice. There are still schools in the United States that do not comply with school segregation laws. There are certain areas of America where people of a certain race or ethnic background are more likely to be pulled over by law enforcement.
In the matter of societal treatment that causes injustice, the experts break it down into the direct and indirect form. Direct inequality is the act of denying rights and opportunities to some people, but not to others. One example of direct inequality is denying individuals the right to eat in a public restaurant based solely on the sexual orientation of those individuals. Governments that segregate schools and other public facilities based on race are an example of direct inequality.
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.
In the middle of the twentieth century the idea started to expand. Gender, nationality, race, and environmental equality were included. The concept also expanded from just a governmental responsibility to create an equal society to include personal responsibility for alleviating the unjust conditions suffered by victims all over the world.
The drawbacks to establishing a truly equal society are broken down by experts into two basic parts. One is the way individuals in mainstream society treat others based only on personal bias, prejudice, fear, and misinformation. Examples of this are people who are treated unequally because of their gender, age, race, religion, social status, education, nationality, or mental and physical disabilities.
Unjust governmental laws are the second part of the equation. These are law put in place, knowingly or unknowingly, that create conditions that limit, deny, or make it hard for some segments of the population to access opportunities freely given to other segments of the population. Examples of these are voting laws that redistrict certain areas to sway elections in favor of one party and laws that require specific types of identification in order for a person to be allowed into the polling booths.
Environmental laws, or the lack thereof, that allow industries to dispose of waste in the lakes and rivers that a community relies on for drinking water is another example of governmental injustice. There are still schools in the United States that do not comply with school segregation laws. There are certain areas of America where people of a certain race or ethnic background are more likely to be pulled over by law enforcement.
In the matter of societal treatment that causes injustice, the experts break it down into the direct and indirect form. Direct inequality is the act of denying rights and opportunities to some people, but not to others. One example of direct inequality is denying individuals the right to eat in a public restaurant based solely on the sexual orientation of those individuals. Governments that segregate schools and other public facilities based on race are an example of direct inequality.
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.
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