The world's population seems to be more divided than before between great wealth and abject poverty. The chances of getting ahead if you come from an impoverished background are becoming fewer and fewer. It seems that wealth, privilege, and opportunity are open to only a select group. The opposite of this scenario is social justice. This is the idea that access to the possibility of wealth, opportunity, and privilege should be open to every human being.
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.
It took another hundred years for the concept to expand. This time it included gender, environment, ethnicity, and race. It was also expanded from primarily a governmental issue, creating an atmosphere conducive to an equal society, into the responsibility private citizens have for human victims no matter where in the world they are.
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.
Experts break down the ways in which society treats certain individuals unequally into direct and indirect. Direct inequality comes about when people deny certain rights and opportunities to some and not to others. If the owner of a public restaurant bars diners from eating at his establishment based on their sexual orientation, that is direct inequality. Segregated schools and public facilities that deny access to certain individuals with the consent of the government is another example.
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.
It took another hundred years for the concept to expand. This time it included gender, environment, ethnicity, and race. It was also expanded from primarily a governmental issue, creating an atmosphere conducive to an equal society, into the responsibility private citizens have for human victims no matter where in the world they are.
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.
Experts break down the ways in which society treats certain individuals unequally into direct and indirect. Direct inequality comes about when people deny certain rights and opportunities to some and not to others. If the owner of a public restaurant bars diners from eating at his establishment based on their sexual orientation, that is direct inequality. Segregated schools and public facilities that deny access to certain individuals with the consent of the government is another example.
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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