The Importance Of Pride In Social Justice

As an economically disadvantaged, minority student who ventured out of a small, closed-minded town, I have developed a passion to serve the underserved. Throughout my life, I have been associated with and witnessed the consequences of being a minority. For example, with 1% of my high school identifying

With more events disputing over a child’s enrolment in taking social justice positions learned in school, it is hard for society to decide whether social justice should be apart of the curriculum. Cynthia Reynolds, author of Maclean’s article Why are schools brain washing our children, explores the topic of social justice in our education system.

Over the course of time in our country, many groups in our society have experienced being set apart from sustainable communities. Among them are the immigrants, the homeless, the African Americans, those with physical or mental disabilities and the Native Americans. According to McIntosh (1988), “Whites are taught to think of their lives as morally neutral, normative, and average, and also ideal, so that we work to benefit others, this is seen as work which will allow ‘them’ to be more like ‘us’ “ (p. 1). Unquestionably, this was the case back in the nineteenth century when the “White” people thought it

The best lasting answer to food deserts may be to turn them green. We should promote a compacted walk able community that holds up local business and grocers in the low-income area. Having ready admission to inexpensive healthy food shouldn’t be an extravagance of the superior classes, it should be an essential structural mass of all city

My group of three flippantly chose the topic of food deserts, a topic that we knew nothing about, and drove into Homewood one morning in January to start our field research. We found the owner of a small grocery store- the only grocery store in Homewood- and began asking him questions about the needs of the community. Quickly it became clear that this man would be more than field research. We set to work, brainstorming ways to help this little grocery store that seemed so important to the community.

Fixing food deserts is about more than just building grocery stores in low-income areas. There is much more that can be done in communities to build a strong food system. It is challenging, nearly impossible, to state the be intervention practices for food deserts. It is difficult to implement the same intervention in all communities, because no two communities are exactly the same. Nevertheless, interventions and policies of the past give other policy makers ideas for intervention in their own neighborhoods; an intervention built on the community’s

Imagine the news headlines filled with nothing but people like you - same hair, skin, defining features - except all the headlines are filled with death. Death at the hands of people we are all taught to trust with our safety. This is how my 2015 summer had been. Days upon days of headlines with black people being killed by “peace” officers. As the list of names grew longer, it became apparent that there was no intention to protect the black community, instead, the public was being “protected” from us. Growing up in a community of minorities, I had come to believe that there was a sense of solidarity in our struggles. I was wrong in thinking our shared status meant unity. At the core of every marginalized community, is a sense of anti-blackness. This harsh realization happened during a class discussion when everyone was throwing into my face that ultimately my feelings and thoughts did matter. I was reminded that I was an other and I stood alone in this fight for my community.

Many things were happening in Richmond during the month of April in 1895. John Mitchell Jr. the editor of the prominent African American newspaper the Richmond Planet, was attacked by another African American Reverend W. W. Browne president of the United Order of the True Reformers. Rev. Browne accused Mitchell and another African American named Mr. Teamoh for encouraging social equality between races. This battle between Rev. Browne and Mitchell never left the front page of the Richmond Planet for the entire month of April. The incident between the two men was so controversial that it caused an uproar among the African American community all throughout the United States. The issue brought up the topic of race pride. Many readers sent letters to the Richmond Planet expressing their contempt towards Rev. Brown and emphasizing the importance of race pride within the African American community.

Many of my life experiences have given me a glimpse of what it means to be in the margins of society. My family’s history of racism and poverty, my father’s physical disability, my experiences as a woman, and growing up in the diverse Bay Area with friends, mentors, coaches, and teachers from different backgrounds has opened my eyes to the disparities in society. When I was sixteen I had a particularly salient experience that awoke my heart and mind to the ideas of social justice. I was in Memphis, Tennessee for a basketball tournament and on our day off we went to the Civil Rights Museum, which was built around the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. We saw the counters from sit-ins, buses from the Freedom Ride, and learned about the systematic oppression of Jim Crow. I was confused by the hate and anger I saw but found myself clenching my fists with rage at the injustice of it all. Yet, what was even more powerful was sitting in the parking lot with my team and listening to our assistant coach, who was an African-American man, share his experiences of racism, how it shaped his identity, and his fears for his two sons. Our head coach then shared about her experiences as lesbian and the ways in which she was continually denied rights because of her sexual orientation.

Justene glanced at the sign standing outside of the double doors to the lecture hall of her college’s conference building that read “Oppression and Privilege: A Lecture on the Problems of Oppression and Privilege in Our Society. Guest Speakers Peggy McIntosh, Marilyn Frye, and Allan G. Johnson.” She continued through the door and found her friend Ashley, giving her a brief hug before taking her seat, wondering why she had let Ashley talk her into coming to this lecture in the first place. Ashley was a Philosophy major and dedicated her life to knowing all about current issues and heavily debated topics. Justene on the other hand, was a Human Development and Family Studies major who was way

On my first day of summer pride, it was very rough and hard. Summer pride is a activity where you run and workout over the summer for the next football season. I was always tired after right after every practice and go home take a shower and then go straight to sleep. Although every practice was tiring it was worth it for are next football season. I liked summer pride, because are coaches were always having us lift weights, but what i did not like where we woke up at six in the middle of the summer. The running was also frustrating because it would be very hot and humid outside. The first freshman football game was against McArthur and was one of the best games of the season. We worked hard for are first game, and we won. The game ended up

Healthy fruit, vegetables, and other wholesome food alternatives in impoverished areas such as these are often far from accessible, or are lacking altogether (Allen, 20). My previous essay and interview detailed that factor, finding and interviewing a manager employed at one of the only available slow food, organic grocery stores: Stehly Farms Market. It is my hope that through my efforts on assignment in Linda Vista, both a proverbial and literal seed of change will take root in my neighborhood to disseminate information about the just food revolution and create stronger ties to the community and its members on the

Fighting social inequality must occur on two fronts: the defensive front (or charity) and the offensive front (or justice). Just as military tactics often use two fronts to surround the enemy and win the war, so must we as communities implement a way to defeat and undermine social inequality. Just as fighting a war on one front is nearly impossible to win, fighting social inequality with only justice or only charity will not lead to an end to disparity across the country. Instead, I find it helpful in viewing justice and charity as two parts of a singular mission that are both essential in combatting social inequality. Similar to the notion of “Think Global, Act Local”, we must act in our communities to assist those in need through charity

The notion of justice is existence of proper balance of rights and its access under the laws of land. It refers to not depriving any person from availing privileges, opportunities etc. John Rawls writes, "Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override"It means that the interaction in a society must be free from any sort of discrimination such as religion, race, color, caste or sex. It ensures fair distribution of assets and equal opportunity. José P. Laurel defines Social Justice as “Social justice is neither communism, nor despotism, nor atomism, nor anarchy, but the humanization of laws and the equalization of social and economic forces by the state so that justice in its rational and objectively secular conception may at least be approximated.”

For the last three years, I have volunteered with City Harvest, a non-profit organization that works to address hunger and food insecurity in New York City. I have given my time collecting food donations from vendors at the Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket and distributing free, fresh produce to low-income residents at City Harvest’s Bedford-Stuyvesant Mobile Market. In addition to making a difference in the community, I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to engage City Harvest staff to learn more about their Healthy Neighborhoods program and the challenge of food insecurity.