The term social justice is one of those terms that seems to have as many meanings as people advocating for it. I feel as though if I asked ten people what social justice means, I’d get ten different answers.
That’s not good.
When I look up the term in the dictionary, I get a definition that at best is squishy and can mean just about anything. It reads justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society.
Huh?
The Pachamama Alliance, a non-profit group that works with the indigenous people of the Amazon rainforest, defines social justice as the equal distribution of resources and opportunities, in which outside factors that categorize people are irrelevant.
The equal distribution of resources sounds an awful lot like communism.
Because the term social justice is so poorly defined, I feel as though I have no other choice than to define the term by basing the definition on the actions of the people claiming to be advocates for social justice. I’d rather not do that. I feel it will almost certainly give faulty data.
Just because someone is fighting for social justice doesn’t mean even they know what it means.
From what I can gather, to be for social justice means you are against equal opportunity and you are instead for equal outcome. It’s not enough that everyone, no matter their race, sex, religion, or national origin, have the same opportunities, they should have the same outcome.
These are two different things entirely.
For example, it’s not enough that a person of a minority class is given the opportunity to interview for a job along with non-minority applicants, they should be awarded the job outright because of their minority status. This would make sure there’s an equal outcome. This is something social justice seems to advocate.
It’s with this fact in mind that I cannot ever see myself being a social justice advocate. Although I’m against racism, sexism, homophobia, and other forms of discrimination, I believe in equal opportunity, not equal outcome. I no more believe a gay woman should be given a job because she is a gay woman than I believe a white straight male should be given a job because he is a white straight male.
Both scenarios are wrong.
