Social Justice

What is social justice and how long has it been around? Well the politically correct answer is social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. What it should say is treat everyone equally, so you don't have to create a movement that tells you how to treat people no matter their race, gender, or economic status. Social justice originally a Catholic term, first used about 1840 for a new kind of  habit necessary for post-agrarian societies (Novack, M. 2009).  Religious thoughts and political thoughts separated to remove the states control over social and economic affairs to ensure equality. 

The social justice movement takes it a step further than the civil rights movement that was geared toward people of color.  The social justice movement is equality and inclusiveness for everyone. The social justice warriors are those willing to be the voice and standing on the front line to promote equality and to ensure the progression of the movement is not silenced. This is a positive stance that has somehow been turned into a negative plight against what some would call liberals.  I call them individuals with hearts that want to see everyone treated equally. Our current social justice warriors are groups like Black Lives Matter and the women of the Me Too movement, and the men supporting the women of the Me Too movement. Black Lives Matter social justice warriors are standing up against police brutality and the injustice of the crimes committed by police against blacks. Without social justice warriors the injustice is likely to continue.

Social justice and diversity in the workplace has to be understood people are different and there needs to be zero tolerance for discrimination or judgmental biases. The staff should be a group of diverse qualified individual who are hired by their ability to do the job, and not turned away because of race, gender, sexual orientation or disability. A supportive environment that includes everyone, where everyone is treated equally. Every individual should feel and know that their social identity doesn't have an impact on decisions made or matter at all. 

I personally feel that the social justice warrior is helping to promote cultural awareness, appreciation, and diversity in the marketplace, because it is all about inclusiveness.  I believe the social justice warrior is open to dialogue with those with a difference of opinion, but they are hoping that their views are truly being heard and not misinterpreted.  I believe those against the SJW would want people to believe they are hurting cultural awareness, because those are the ones not willing to see things from a different perspective.  It reminds me of Colin Kaepernick taking a knee during the football games to draw attention to police brutality and injustice against blacks, and how it was misinterpreted that he was disrespecting the flag and that he did not like or respect policeman or our military. This was so far from what he was demonstrating and even when asked it was still turned to be negative, so I see SJWs wanting to be heard for the correct interpretation of the injustice or equality they are fighting for without violence.  

Now on to this Dove ad and how I did not see the issue and I did not see the racist message that was blown way out of proportion.  I was on Facebook and I read plenty of comments about boycotting Dove because the ad was so racist and how black women don't turn white when using the soap.  The best one was when black women use dove they become clean and white.  I finally asked the question on a friend's post could this ad mean that the soap is good for all skin types and all women, and not have a racist message at all? My other question was, how many of you know Dove is owned by Unilever, so even if you stop buying Dove it won't matter?  I had several friends say they didn't even think of it like that, but could see it from that view once I mentioned it.  In today's society I think we are all on edge because of the division that has rose to the surface in this country that we instantly see something that has absolutely no racial connotation but we see it through racially motivated lenses.