...Social justice is a simple concept that unfortunately is not fulfilled within our society. Obtaining my Bachelor’s of Science in Criminal Justice last spring has given me the opportunity to take various courses such as juveniles and the criminal justice system, social psychology, and ethics. I believed the basic concept of social justice is that every human being has equal rights and opportunities regardless of their race, gender, sexual orientation, beliefs, etc. America has sold this idea that we can all have what is known as the “American Dream”. The American Dream refers to a big house with a white picket fence along with a nice car and so forth, but what they do not emphasize is how unrealistic that idea is for many American, which is a social injustice. It is very unfortunate that slavery ended 151 years ago, but yet African Americans still face oppression. They are fighting odds not put forth on themselves but the odds society has created for them. A prime example, the current amount of police brutality cases against African American is a tremendous societal...
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...Entangled in our rich history of the United States of America are accounts of injustice and prejudice. When we are faced with such adversities we fight, we preach, and we stand our ground until the very end; until justice is served. A notable example of this type of reform would be the Civil Rights Movement that took place in the 1900s. This movement worked to fix the view of the African Americans in America; these people wished for equal rights and better lives. Years later in 2017 this perilous battle counties throughout America by the descants of those brave souls from the 1900s. Reports of police brutality against African Americans have sparked protest after protest for the lives lost to this senseless violence, and they’ve managed to make their voices as loud as the...
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...At the time of extension the colonisers’ colonial power, cultural colonialism happens at the same time. Cultural colonialism practices as an influence of one culture over another, which brings cultural injustice to the colonial society (Ballantyne 2010). In the history, when European invaders arrived in North America, the number of Indian aborigines dwindled drastically. The aggression made most of the natives to be killed, the people who survived were forced to disregard their traditional cultural practices, values and beliefs and accept the whites’ culture. To achieve the ‘peace’ of the settlement, the whites moved many tributes to the abandoned land and what the Indian leaves were destroyed. The behaviour devastated the tribes’ culture...
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...industrialization developed rapidly. It made a prosperous society of America, but it also made the dark. Social evils hiding behind the peosperity were reflected by the the lowest level workers lives. “The great corporation which employed you lied to you, and lied to the whole country—from top to bottom it was nothing but one gigantic lie.” was written by Upton Sinclair in his book, The Jungle. In his book, he tells about a story of Jurgis Rudkus, who comes to America with full of hopes and dreams with his family from Lithuania and finds a job in Brown's slaughterhouse in Chicago. But life isn’t match with his American dream. Catastrophes ensuse to him. His loses his job because of work injury. His wife, Ona, is raped by her boss. Jurgis is under arrest because of beating the boss. Ona dies in dystocia and his son drowns. Everythings keeps eroding his...
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...Throughout American History the black communities across America has endured numerous oppressive ideologies and treatment. These numerous detrimental actions have held back many in black communities from having the same opportunities as other people in America. While many have been held back there are still some black people who have been able to achieve high levels of success. The more privileged of black people who find themselves in the middle and upper economic classes of America often are born and raised in the slums and hoods that many in the black community call home. Through their efforts, opportunities and gifts these more affluent black people often reach levels of success to which they are able to move themselves and their families...
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...Social Injustice is a term that can be difficult to define, and may depend on the perspective of the group of people. To some, Discrimination is believed to be an example of social injustice. Discrimination is treating someone differently based on the color of their skin, gender, or sexuality. Discrimination can be perceived differently by different groups. A recent poll taken by the NPR, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation asked Americans of different races various questions about discrimination. “White Americans are among those who feel their group is discriminated against with 55 percent saying discrimination exists against whites in the U.S. today.” (Neel, 2017) African Americans were also surveyed and asked questions about the places that discrimination might happen. Fifty percent of all African Americans reported that they have experienced discrimination with police. Nineteen percent stated that they have experienced discrimination when “trying to vote or participate in politics”. (Neel, 2017) Forty-five percent have had discrimination when “trying to rent/buy housing”. (Neel, 2017)...
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...Racial injustice is the plague that has infected the nation we live in today, spreading from the day that farms discovered cash crops and fighting against all odds to ruin the views that we have against people of color. It takes the form of denial of rights in front of a judge, or casually residing in those on the streets, tempting them to change their opinions based on someone’s differences. The courts, juries and everyday people across the nation demonstrate this ideal of racial injustice everyday, shown from the writings of anti-racist Tim Wise and the life of Scout Finch in Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, in which they highlight the difference in treatment between those of color and those who are white. Throughout the entirety...
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...History is an imperative, open-ended subject with a multitude of perspectives to view with every topic and time frame it consists of. One such topic and period of time is the Reconstruction Era and the following decades leading up to the Industrialization of America. As with any other period in history, there are different ways to view this specific span of time. Interpreting this period of one as social unjust and injustice is one option. Conversely, it can be distinguished for significant progress in various aspects and the overall prosperity that came as a result of industrialization. Focusing on one method or the other may better guide in understanding this period. For starters, both of these components were clearly present in this duration...
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...United States to earn a living as a writer. He was born in Joplin, Missouri, and because of his parents’ separation he lived in several places including places in the American mid-west and Mexico. He attended Columbia University, but stopped his studies because of the discrimination he experienced at the hands of his white counterparts. Hughes was a prolific writer and his themes were driven by the racial oppression that he witnessed all around him and that he experienced first hand as well. Hughes was a prominent member of the Harlem Renaissance, which was a time in America when African Americans experienced a flowering of intellectual and cultural activities in the African American communities in Harlem, New York. Alain Locke referred to this era as the New Negro Movement. During this time, Langston Hughes and other African writers’ words were full of protest and great expressions of the social injustices that were bestowed upon African Americans. Langston Hughes often wrote about the second class citizenship status that African Americans experienced, and the ills of segregation were key themes in his writings. His writings not only voiced protest, but the theme of rejection was present in his writings. He wrote about his personal rejection from everywhere when searching for work. In addition, like other New Negro Movement writers, Hughes spoke out against and provided vivid...
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...in uncompromised form. Despite this singularity of purpose, the complexity of the situation meant that a more nuanced response to the statement A Call for Unity as published by eight Alabama Clergymen was necessary. In this way, King’s letter in fact served a fourfold purpose: to establish himself as a legitimate authority in the eyes of his audience, to show the trials of the black in America, to justify his cause, and to argue the necessity of immediate action. In Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter, written to the Clergymen from Birmingham Prison, he uses the rhetorical appeal of ethos to establish his credibility on the subject of racial discrimination and injustice. He starts off the letter with “My Dear Fellow Clergymen”. By him saying this, he is putting himself on the same “level” as the clergymen, sending the message that he is no less than them and they are no better than him. He then goes on to say, “I am here because I have organizational ties here. But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here”. He is telling them that he has credibility on the matter of injustice, not because he is the recipient of white privilege, but because he is well researched on the subject. King says, “I...
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...this quote relate to advancing the dream of freedom and justice in America? “It is wrong to use moral means to attain immoral ends….it is just as wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends…” Martin Luther King uses this quote in his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” to summarize the actions of the infamous Bull Connor and his policeman who “have used the moral means of nonviolence to maintain the immoral end of flagrant racial injustice.” However, this quote can also be used with relevance to today’s advancing dream of freedom and justice in America....
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...Leadership Conference, protested and held non-violent demonstrations and marches in many cities, such as Birmingham. After his famous march in Birmingham, white police officers arrested him and put him in the Birmingham Jail. While in jail, he read a public statement delivered by eight Alabama clergymen from local churches, claiming that King's demonstrations were unnecessary. King, responding by writing "Letter from Birmingham Jail," refutes all of the clergymen's claims. In paragraphs 12-14 of his letter, King attempts to persuade the clergymen as to why he must act now, rather than later, for social change, dismissing the claim that the march was "untimely." King raises the clergymen’s awareness of the situations affecting the...
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...Managing Diversity Final Research Paper Why is Discussion of Race Taboo in America? America is said to be a melting pot of cultures, a country of not one nationality but a diverse mixture of all different types of people melted into one nation. This term became famous in America from the 1908 play of the same name, “The Melting Pot.” The basis of the play was how immigration to America caused the nation to be a fusion of nationalities, cultures, and ethnicities. What the play failed to mention was that although some nationalities were indeed melting together, American’s that were of different races were being excluded. The physical differences in races, such as African Americans, had caused them to be excluded from reaping the benefits of all that America had to offer. The worst part about all of this is that the people being excluded from “The Melting Pot” were decedents of individuals who did not come to this country by choice. Instead they were brought to this country through kidnapping. Flash forward a hundred years to Nov. 24th, 2008. America elects its first African American president Barack Obama. Article after article published around this time had headlines reading, “Barack Obama: The End of Racism in America.” We finally did it! Racism in America was able to be totally eradicated through the election of an African American as our nation’s president. If only it was that easy. Now in 2014, eight years after the election of our nation’s first African American...
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...a time of great social change in the United States, and a novel about the racial injustices of 1930s Alabama carried a powerful message to its readers. After the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, literature and literacy were used to expose and educate on racial injustice (Prendergrast 2). The dominant theme of the novel is prejudice and ultimately the courage needed to overcome prejudice. There are three main types of prejudice that are explored in the novel; racial prejudice, social prejudice and fear of the unknown. Racial prejudice is present throughout the novel in the people of Maycomb’s everyday life, as it is a novel set in the ‘deep south’ of America in the 1930’s. This period is not so long after the American civil war, so slavery’s abolishment had occurred not all that long ago, and the horror of slavery was still on the mind of many black people at the time (Brundage 86). Because of this, most people’s attitudes towards black people had not changed very much. The situation that shows the best examples of racial prejudice is the trial of Tom Robinson. In his trial, Tom Robinson is misjudged and mistreated because he is black. One of the clearest examples of this is the way in which Mr. Gilmer, Tom’s prosecutor, calls Tom “boy.” He uses a tone of voice towards Tom, which one would use when talking to a child. This makes Tom look very foolish. The only reason Mr. Gilmer speaks this way, is because Tom is black. An even more extreme example of racial prejudice...
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...throughout his paper, he acknowledges the injustice of the world around him. He makes notice of the cruel society that he is surrounded by, and uses his letter to make known the clergymen’s misconception of the movement in Birmingham. In the letter, King uses kind words such as “nonviolent” to provide evidence to the clergymen that the protest was indeed peaceful, and for a good cause. At the same time, King wishes to point out misunderstandings made by the clergymen in a polite manner. For instance, King is quoted as saying “You deplore the demonstrations that are presently taking place in Birmingham. But I am sorry that your statement did not express a similar concern for the conditions that brought the demonstrations into being.” (King 1) In this quote, King is subtly, yet very clearly acknowledging the actions of the clergymen, and deeming them misconstrued. In translation, he is providing clear evidence to the clergymen of how their previous statement is wrongful and inappropriate. King is trying to get a point across to the clergymen that gives reasoning for the protest. Through his profound evidence, King’s main goal is to allow for the clergymen to open their blind eyes to the social catastrophe in Birmingham, Alabama. He wants them to see the reasoning behind constant protesting and to understand the point of this letter. King feels that the segregation in Birmingham is beyond worse than any other place in America at this point. I his letter, he explains to...
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