Veronica: Social justice means everyone being treated the equally as well as all races supporting each other. Many ethnic groups do not have social justice. For example, not all Mexican immigrants have justice because they endure racist slurs. Immigration has to do with racial slurs because as more immigrants come and they are being offended and mistreated. Immigration has increased over time: “DHS apprehended approximately 662,000 aliens; 64 percent were citizens of Mexico. DHS removed approximately 438,000 aliens from the United States. The leading countries of origin for those removed were Mexico (72 percent), Guatemala (11 percent), Honduras (8.3 percent), and El Salvador (4.8 percent).” As immigrants have protested to stop deportations in Chicago they are fighting for social justice to have everyone be able to live here and be respected because that means to this certain group that they are obtain social justice. Social justice for immigrants is having access to education as some may only have access to receiving a high school diploma. Immigrants can only apply to some scholarships, and health care. These human rights should be available to everyone. Our country should not discriminate against immigrants receiving access to those resources. Immigrants should have the same rights as citizens. For example, they should be able to vote or work even if they don’t have the right documentation. As, “Gov.. Pat Quinn signed a bill into law Sunday allowing illegal immigrants to get special driver's licenses, but it will be at least another 10 months before they'll start being issued.” Pat Quinn’s signing of this bill was important because now immigrants are able to drive with a license. Some immigrants were scared to drive without a license and now they are able to have it and not be worried about being stopped.
People living in Chicago face many obstacles while struggling to achieve social justice. These include being judged by your physical appearance and negative interactions with others. The social media has a big role for us not to achieve social justice. The social media causes people to go against their own race. Even in courts “a scathing Justice Department report that found a culture of racism in police and courts. Decision not to charge the white Ferguson police officer who killed unarmed black teenager Michael Brown, but criticized the police department for a "pattern and practice" of racial discrimination.” There have been more cases of police officers not being arrested for police brutality. Much of the brutality was done to African Americans. It’s not right that instead of achieving social justice we are denied as in the case of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner and others. I think the obstacles to justice have to do with physical, emotional struggles. Struggling to have food to eat every day. That is why immigrants come to the United States to work for a better future for their children. But over time we will reduce amount of people struggling to have justice for them.There are many families that have a hard time providing their family with necessary things they need for example like “Gaines-Turner discusses a familiar story—low-income families working “2-3 jobs to make ends meet,” with “wages so low and expenses so high” that sometimes work “may not be enough to even pay for the expense of childcare.” Working isn’t enough for people to feed their families and this to me is defining struggle because the parents are trying their best and yet it isn’t enough to pay for food. My role in the struggle would be to support those fighting to achieve justice for the Mexican race. Being an activist supporting those groups that will fight for Mexican rights, women rights, and against police brutality can be very helpful in achieving justice. Being devoted to reach a goal set to have Mexicans have the same access and equality in Illinois as other ethnic groups. My role also to fight for equality within prisons because those living there can have a well maintained area because even if they have committed a crime they are humans and deserve a good place. But also my role would be to have those who have been sentenced who are not guilty be released. The issue of false accusations and poorly maintained prisons connects to social justice because there are some prisons here in Chicago and around the world that are not receiving the same benefits or resources as other prisons who are more well-kept. Social justice would be that all of the prisons are equally given money to and processed the same. Also those that are false accusations are being punished and this doesn't give social justice to everyone because it is in some cases. "Homeland Security." Immigration Enforcement Actions 2013. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2015. "Governor Signs Law, but Driver's Licenses for Illegal Immigrants Likely 10 Months off." Chicago Tribune. N.p., 27 Jan. 2013. Web. 10 Mar. 2015. States that Quinn has signed bill for immigrants. "Michael Brown Shooting - Ferguson Missouri News & Top Stories - NBC News." NBC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2015. Kaufmann9, Greg. "This Week in Poverty: The Expert Testimony of Tianna Gaines-Turner." This Week in Poverty: The Expert Testimony of Tianna Gaines-Turner. N.p., 09 Aug. 3013. Web. 10 Mar. 2015. |
Celeste: To me, Social Justice is a united school that always sticks together no matter what. I remember my freshmen year we had a ceremony at a park to bring us into the SOJO family. Mrs. Jones lit a candle and gave a quick speech about us becoming part of the SOJO family. I remember her saying that freshmen were the red candle because it was a symbol for blood, without blood the the SOJO family would not be able to continue. There are a lot of memories about freshmen year, about how they wanted us as students to become united. We had many bonding activities. It is just sad that we were unable to take all of that into consideration.
We have gone through a lot these past four years. We have had a number of different principles, as well as protests to get teachers back who were fired for reasons still unknown. We also had sit-ins when our AP classes got taken away. For reasons unknown yet again. Even though we are not united as a class, I feel we are still united as a school. We might not be the best of friends or get along at all, but when something is unjust we stick together for what we know is right. My vision for struggle, is no struggle at all. I believe in world peace. I do not understand why we cannot all be united. I do not understand why people grow up to want to be more powerful than others. It intrigues me how an innocent infant can grow up to make the world into a horrible place. I would wish to start off by having a senior talk. It would be extremely difficult though, since not everyone is on the same page. The senior talk would be useful because everything could just be out in the open. I believe that there is so much tension and hate that it would take time to work it out. In the future I will contribute in my vision of struggle by talking to my own children or children in general about the meaning of Social Justice, as well as the importance of being united. My topic is prison rehabilitation. This topic is a social justice issue because everyone deserves a second chance. I am curious about how prison used to not care for their inmates. I would like to discover what happen that prisoners started to have programs to encourage criminals to not go back into a life of crime, but to be on actual functional member that contributes positive energy to society. Agustin: Social justice is equality for everyone. For all races or ethnic groups to be treated the same without any inequalities. Social justice is for you to go that step forward to be able to change situations that you think are unfair, to fix it yourself don’t wait for the change to be made by someone else to make the change. Social justice
Some obstacles that we face while facing social justice are many type of inequality like economic inequality because people are separated into social classes. This is social justice needs to happen because most of the time the wealthiest people get what they want done and there voice is heard more in dissections being made than poor community people there needs and voices. Other obstacles are racial inequality for so many years there have been racial inequality that has had a huge impact in social justice. Because depending on if you’re not white and you’re colored they don’t treat you the same. And for all this an obstacle is because we should keep on fighting for social justice for everyone to be treated equally.
My vision for struggle is when you can’t do something you want. Like you want to have the American dream but you can’t because you don’t have papers. You are an immigrant so your rights get limited there isn’t a lot of jobs available for you and if there is there not the best jobs out there there physically intensive. This is my vision for struggle that social justice is not on your favor for you to be able to have accomplished your goals.
My role in the struggle is to work with what got. I live in little village with low resources community where there is violence present on our daily lives. Where we can’t go play with friends to the park and be enjoying the game without worrying about a shooting to happen. The struggle I face every day is the injustice we as guys go true on little village. Like for example when a cop sees you late in the afternoon for no reason he pulls you over and search for drugs or weapons on you just for the simple fact that you are a guy walking in little village streets. This role I struggle with and I continue to struggle because social justice is not playing a role on my community. My project is prison rehabilitation and false accusations and how prisons are maintained inside. This relates to social justice because prisons are how justice decides to punish those who don’t follow the norms of society. Also in some cases were prisoner’s go to prison for a crime they didn't committee that shows the connection of social justice because they were accused unfairly. |