Social Justice As A Concept

Social justice cannot be exclusionary. We must be outraged about every tragedy, we must be angry about every injustice in every country, it is backward and obstructive to be selective. When horrible events happen around the world, there is a trend that involves people attempting to draw parallels between each one, in order to create a somewhat overall understanding of the situation. However the problems of these worlds do not fit together in that way, each situation is unique in its idiosyncrasies and attempting to apply solutions or interventions from one to another is an almost offensive oversimplification. It is a cruel generalisation of the historical context and different social, religious, and cultural issues that exist.

You cannot fight in the name of social justice, if you were not equally outraged by the attack in Peshawar, as you were the events in Sydney. Liberalism is not limited to the West, by fighting for human rights we have to fight for every human, regardless of their ethnicity, gender, religion, age or sexual orientation.

This applies heavily with feminism, particularly women who are anti-feminist. Women in the western world who wear their ignorance with a somewhat pride or honour need a wakeup call. Despite the issues that exist here, (pay gap, domestic abuse, objectification,), surely it is worth supporting feminism for the women and girls without rights/education in other countries? Even if you feel you don’t need feminism, (although just because you have not experienced something, doesn't invalidate its reality for many) it is crucial to recognise it is much bigger than that. Moreover, the so called feminists who don’t speak about these issues need to broaden their priorities, rather than dictate their own self-proclaimed ideals of feminism.

The image of social justice much like feminism has been contorted to mean something it does not. It is for those who are ‘easily offended’ and ‘overly politically correct’ – but this is belittling and insensitive to what the whole movement stands and fights for. Social justice is broad and complex with millions of people striving to find what is right, naturally therefore people disagree. However there is a cause, its definition is ‘the view that everyone deserves equal economic, political and social rights and opportunities.’. Is that not worth fighting for?