Reading and Writing for Social Justice: Looking at the World Through a Lens of Justice and Fairness 3

I interviewed my mom about her views on what was good and unfair about our world, and this was the result:

“What do you think is good about our world?”

“I think that there are so many good things about our world, it’s kind of hard to pick a few, but one I think would be the fact that there are so many interesting differences in our world.”

“Can you give me some examples?”

“Okay, for instance, landscapes, you can constantly learn new things by going to different places, cultures, religions, foods, types of people, kind of nature, and so much more.” 

“And what do you think is unfair about our world?”

“Wow, another hard question, but I think that it’s unfair how power is wielded to hurt people a lot, in unjust ways.”

“Can you elaborate?”

“Well, the fact that there are rich countries, and there are poor countries, racism, sometimes governments treat their people very badly. Also, it’s unfair that women don’t make as much money as men in their jobs, and it’s unfair that rich people have ways they can keep most of their money and people who are poorer don’t have those same benefits. There is so much that is bad about our world, but I think a big thing is how power is manipulated.”

This makes me think about how people use these differences that are so good, to gain power, and develop classes, and social hierarchies. These things lead to discrimination, prejudice, and bias towards cultures and ethnicities that are very different from one that is familiar to a majority of people. This then helps me to understand how some ethnicities and religions are not ridiculed because they have come to be most well known and familiarized with. For instance, Christians are hardly ever discriminated against because they are a very large group and are familiar to many around the world, while a less known religion might be discriminated against more frequently. I feel as though many people are afraid of new things, so they don't want to accept them into their everyday lives. That they are uncomfortable with different kinds of people, and different ways of life, so they try and shut them out, and drive them away. I think this is why this kind of power is gained, to keep people in their comfort zone. But by doing this, they are keeping people from benefitting from what they could learn from these other cultures and ethnicities. Overall, people can benefit and learn a lot from all of the differences in the world that are one of the things that makes the world such a good place, but power over different cultures and religions leads to people being kept from learning these things, and I believe that is an unfair aspect of our world. But, that is only one side to it, there are so many unfair parts of the world, but also so many wonderful parts!