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originally posted in:Sapphire
3/3/2013 9:04:25 AM
27
Are you concerned about social justice?
It's no secret to most of you that I'm heavily involved in campaigns for equal rights for several disadvantaged groups, chiefly women, people of colour and LGBTQ people. It plays a very large part in my life both on and offline - online in the form of blogging, petitioning, writing to government members and the like, and offline in the form of charity events, donations, counselling and general activism within my community. I feel like these issues are highly important and I want to do my part to both raise awareness and change attitudes in my local community and beyond. It's made me unpopular at times, but it's also incredibly rewarding.
How big a role would you say these issues play in your life? Are you an avid social justice campaigner, someone who couldn't care less, or somewhere in between? Would you be interested in joining local efforts to combat these injustices in your community? Or perhaps you already are involved and have some cool stories to share. Talk about the role social justice has in your life ITT.
English
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2 RepliesI was far more involved and passionate when I was younger. Then I learned about social inertia and realized that cursing the dark is always less effective than lighting a candle. I realized and determined that my actions, how I chose to interact with others, the fact that I can more effectively change the minds of people by talking, reasoning and setting a valid/positive example than I ever could by shouting at them, that's when I calmed down and started worrying about how to best live my life and lead by example and demonstrating my values, rather than scolding others for theirs (which I had determined were flawed compared to mine). I found that no one EVER changes the mind of another. The only person who can change a mind is the owner of the mind and the only reason they will change it is if they determine (for themselves and by themselves) that "there is a better way". The only way to get people to realize there is a better way is to show them, and let them decide for themselves. Shouting, correcting, scolding, protesting, all that does is make people entrench and more sure of their current position. Change takes time, some problems have to die along with the generations who felt those problems were acceptable. No one ever lives to see "everything turn out the way it should be" and the best anyone can hope for is to be an example and an influence to help others to think about things for themselves. That long-term view, that allowance for social inertia (where a society at rest tends to stay at rest and a society at motion in a certain direction tends to maintain that direction) is better influenced by persistent and consistent calm demonstration (through your ongoing and consistent practice) of your ideals, not by demonstrating loudly in the face of "the problem".
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While I would like to attempt to help and am knowledgeable about social injustice I am a long term planner. At the moment it plays very little beyond keeping up with its existence and how far it falls. I've realized nothing I do in the short term will save or help many people for very long like donating to charities and the such. I'd like to do bigger things later in life that would actually have an impact.
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Not particularly. Being a white straight male, I have enough stuff going on in my life that I can't spend time working on other people's lives.
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In-between. Not really.
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2 RepliesOh yes, yes yes yes I am. I'm in the Students for Social Respect, which is the GSA at my school. I've gone to a class about social justice, and privilege. It really opened my eyes, and has helped form me into who I am today. I've also been known to get into some pretty heated arguments involving social issues. It's an uphill climb sometimes, but I'm glad to make it.
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2 RepliesI am. It's common for the media to portray white males as stupid and clumsy while the wife is intelligent and beautiful. (King of Queens, The Simpsons, Everybody loves Raymond, etc). And society as a whole being ok with violence and raep against men (deeming it comical) and the whole "lets empower women and belittle men!" with examples like [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boys_are_stupid,_throw_rocks_at_them!_controversy[/url] paints males negatively in children's eyes. So yes I want equality for men.
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Edited by Dustin: 3/9/2013 1:10:22 AMI only really debate (both on and offline); I haven't done much other stuff in support of equal rights. And it's impossible to lose a debate when you're fighting for equality, but it usually ends in the usual, "LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU." And also what Recon said about how you can't change anyone's mind, which basically means I've made no change. If you really want to make change, you'll just have to teach kids while they're young about equality before they end up like the kids in [url=http://www.bungie.net/7_Children-adopted-by-sames-sex-couples-fare-just-as/en-us/Forum/Post?id=59979608]this[/url] thread.
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I just don't care anymore. There are too many people with thick skulls. Hell, even if LGBTQ marriage was to become legal people would still bitch. Most people on Earth think about themselves and what they think is right before anything else.
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1 ReplyLiving in the South kind of means a lot of conversations with bigots. I do my best to educate.
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5 RepliesI'm a member of a party that tries to fight for equality. I don't think I have done any concrete work on the matter though.
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20 RepliesOh god not another pity party from you. All groups face hardships and unfairness and you only care about those which affect you. Their are plenty of issues which affect men and whites but people like you only see it from one perspective. You don't want equality, you want superiority.
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1 ReplyHow come I never see your threads anymore?
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I am in something called Mosaic Club at my school, and one of the main topics we deal with is social justice. I am helping to organize a "Privilege and Oppression" student-lead workshop that we plan to present in the middle of March. I am far more involved in social justice than I was just a year ago.
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Social justice takes time. You can force people to be aware, but you can't force them to change.
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All that's happened so far is Jay convincing me I'm a feminist based on my own standards.
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Considering the fact that I'm a white male, I feel pretty left out. I don't get some of the same opportunities that minorities sometimes get, especially when it comes to college scholarships. I'm all for equality for everyone. That's the way it should be. It just seems that in some ways and in some places everyone is so focused on the minority that the (increasingly smaller, it seems) majority is left out. It seems like declaring the fact they are a minority is what makes them the minority, at least in some cases. Race and gender should not be issues at all and everyone should be treated on the basis of their abilities and personalities. Sometimes it seems like the social justice campaigns just emphasize the race and gender issues and marginalize the other issues that I believe are more important. While I believe standing up for the disadvantaged is an extremely honorable thing to do, I think a lot of people take it to the extreme and that is almost never good. That's just my view and I think that what you do is incredible.
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I'm doing Social Justice for school. so far it's pretty good. Excursion on wednesday. Raised around 200 dollars today for the burnt down school in Tasmania.
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1 ReplyThe hell is a Q?
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To be perfectly honest, I really don't think we should be focusing on symptoms of an ill society, rather we should focus more on whats actually causing the disease. And in my opinion, it is a lack of education and awareness of a variety of key issues in education of the younger generations. The previous conservative mindset which has dominated social policies worldwide due to the influence of religious groups, mainly the catholic church, and various other right-wing organisations, is slowly being eroded by a gradual liberalization which has become prominent most noticeably in the decline of the Catholic Church, rise of free media (Internet, Television), and gradual liberalism in schools. Of course, this conservative clique is a dying breed, the majority of the members are part of the elderly community, who know little more then what they have been indoctrinated with in their youth. Therefore, in my opinion, if we manage to successfully educate the next generations to have open minds, kind hearts, and none of the ignorance that many of the "Conservative extremists" have, then we will gradually become a much more open, accepting society. This is until of course, the liberals become the new conservatives, and the new liberals want to become cyborgs to take humanity to a higher stage of existence.
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Edited by Entraps: 3/3/2013 9:19:52 PMI'm not all that vocal about social issues except abortion. I care a lot about putting an end to it, all other political issues are secondary to me. In the future I'd probably like to participate in a pro-life rally.
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Yeah, it's a big deal to me. But in New York attitudes have vastly improved in the last few years. Acceptance of the LGBT community in New York is growing every day here, and the laws in the State are changing to show that.
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Im slowly making my friends and family more accepting, but it's slow work.
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I do care about social justice, but I'm not as involved as I would like to be. At the moment I'm just trying to better myself (cutting certain words out of my vocabulary etc.)
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13 RepliesUhh. What does the Q stand for?
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Signed up for the Social Justice program at school. We've got an excursion this Wednesday, should be good.
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It's definitely something I've thought about becoming involved in, although not until after graduation and I move to wherever it is that I will be attending university.
