5 ways to pursue social justice

 

February 20th is the UN’s World Day of Social Justice, it’s General Assembly Season and it’s Black History Month. This has us thinking about social justice and what it looks like in practice.

 

Two of our staff, Peace Bowles and Shakirah Jones, teamed up to write a piece exploring what social justice means, and offer 5 ways to pursue social justice in Richmond. 

 

Since it was Valentine's Day this week, we're also lifting up a paper on bringing more love into social justice movements, called “Measuring Love in the Journey for Justice: A Brown Paper" by Shiree Teng and Sammy Nuñez.

5 ways to pursue social justice here and now in richmond

  1. VOTE in the special election on February 21st, 2023 if you live in the 4th congressional district, which includes most of Richmond’s Southside [map].

  2. ADVOCATE for Virginia state bills and budgets that:

    1. Combat housing inequality [HOME of VA’s legislative agenda] 

    2. Prioritize kids over corporations [take action]

    3. Strengthen the Earned Income Tax Credit [take action]

    4. Cover all kids with health insurance [take action]

  3. JOIN direct action with Richmonders Involved to Strengthen our Communities (RISC) [issue campaigns]

  4. LEARN about community engagement and racial equity with Virginia Community Voice [February 22, 2023 training and March 1st Brown Bag Discussion]

  5. INVEST in the work of community organizations fighting for social justice in Richmond [Richmond for All, Diversity Richmond, American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, Justice Forward, Latinos in Virginia, and Virginia Community Voice]



But wait, what does “social justice” mean?



There are a lot of different views. We understand social justice to be a theory or philosophy that focuses on fairness in relations between individuals in society. It’s the idea that people should have equal rights. And also equal access to wealth, opportunities, and social privileges.


The term first showed up in the mid-1800s in writings by an Italian Jesuit who was commenting on the unfair and unequal economy and social class system in Europe. He put forward the idea that we should try to do what we can to make things better for others. Social justice initially focused on issues such as the distribution of capital, property, and wealth. There was a lot of inequality and economic distress at the time because of the European social class structure.


Though economic and class systems in America today are less rigid than the European feudal system, there is still a lot of inequality and avoidable economic distress here. This results from policies and practices that have unfairly distributed power, resources, and money in the US based on race, gender, religion, etc.


Today, the concept of social justice often refers to human rights, centered around improving the lives of groups historically marginalized based on race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion and disability.


There are 5 principles that guide social justice today (drawn from here and here). We’ve given examples of what that looks like in the work we do.



  1. Access to resources

    1. Though we’re not a direct service organization, our work acknowledges that unequal access to resources is often an outcome of unfair decision-making by those with money, power, and resources. That is why we equip people who have historically been marginalized to become decision-makers and reclaim power and resources they have been denied. We do this through the RVA Thrives Steering Committee, Housing Working Group, Greening Working Group, our new South Richmond Leaders Fellowship, and our youth programs, ARCA and YEER.

  2. Equity

    1. This refers to how individuals are given tools specific to their needs and socioeconomic status in order to move towards similar outcomes (in contrast to equality, where everyone is given the same tools to move toward the same outcome)

    2. We define equity as each person having the resources and decision making power they need to succeed. We teach organizations how to put equity into action through our Equitable Decision Making & Community Engagement trainings. 

  3. Participation

    1. This is when everyone in society has a voice and can verbalize their opinions and concerns and have a role in any decision-making that affects their livelihood and standard of living.

    2. This is a BIG one for us! Social injustice occurs when a small group of individuals makes decisions for a large group, while some people are unable to voice their opinions. We flip this model around by centering the voices of people who have historically been silenced, excluded, or ignored. We connect people who do not have fair access to resources so they can create solutions to problems rather than accept solutions someone else designed.

    3. We hire from the community, we consult with neighbors on all programs and activities of the organization, continually advocate for the vision of South Richmond neighbors and amplify their voices.

  4. Diversity 

    1. This means more than just this having a more representative workplace, though this is important too. It means that people who have historically been excluded from whatever group or institution it is, are not only included but also have power and access to resources to change things so that the institution itself becomes not only more diverse in appearance but more equitable in its actions.

    2. This really comes up for us when working within the Hispanic / Latinx community, where many people speak languages other than English. We try to have multilingual access, namely Spanish and ASL interpretation and meet people where they are so that they can show up and verbalize their opinions.

    3. We try to hire in ways that we hope reduce employment discrimination. See our job openings!

  5. Human Rights

    1. According to the UN, human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status.

    2. We strive to respect human rights as an employer and legal entity, and also work to advocate for and hold accountable others when they do not uphold these rights.



As Cornel West has put it, “justice is what love looks like in public.”  Where the playing field is even for everyone to access, this is where we find social justice, living and breathing.

 

This post was written collaboratively by Peace Bowles and Shakirah Jones. Learn more about them on VACV’s Team page.

 
Rebekah Kendrick