Web Log #4

WebLog4   Where Race Lives 
In class and through our readings, we've struggled to develop an understanding of social justice.  The liberal theory of social justice concerns matters of distributed justice.  However, should social justice also concern matters, as Young asserts, of power, domination and oppression?  Please explore the website Where Race Lives which concerns how United States government policies and past discrimination have made generating wealth easier for some Americans than others.

Prepare to discuss what you have learned in class.

(+/-250 words and at least one photograph).

Social justice should extend to the acts of preference and discrimination that infect the society of the past and present. Systems such as social security should not exclude any group of people because of their race. Any government program should affect every race equally. Also discrimination in jobs is unjust to the specific races the perpetrators are targeting. Throughout the entire housing system discrimination had run rampant. The property and loan value of white homes should not be any higher than that of an African American or other immigrant. The most unjust and surprising aspect of the situation is the ruling of the supreme court having no affect on how the system functioned. This just showed that he situation on the social injustice was completely out of control and no one was doing anything to stop it under the excuse that the segregation was "market given". Then after all of the ignorance of society the national housing act which destroyed minority owned property without rebuilding it leaving many immigrants homeless. Also the few homes left were soon destroyed or inconvenienced through the booming suburb construction building freeways through the communities taking out shopping stores and homes. The declaration of independence says we have a right to the pursuit of happiness. When a governing body or group of people take that chance away from you the society is nowhere close to socially just. In a just society everyone will have equal value not dependent on race or any other factor.

Web Log #3

WebLog3
Apply Miller's discussion of social justice  to a brief analysis of the two contrasting theories of social justice you developed for Blog2.  (Not to exceed four (4) thoughtful paragraphs).
Miller, D.  (1999) "The Scope of Social Justice."  In:  Principles of social justice. Imprint Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press.

 

                My first theory of Social Justice was that it would be fair to ask one person of the population to be affected by all the bad things in life in order for the other people to be affected by the good. According to Miller Justice must be blind to personal preferences. In my understanding I analyzed this viewpoint as saying the least valuable people to the community as a whole should indeed take most of the disadvantages in the society. It is viewed as justice that the more valuable people have more advantages because of their better input into the society. These people who continue their education in order to get a better job in the future did so for their own benefit because they knew the outcome. This would make them one of the more valuable people in the society to get more of the advantages.

                Also the distribution of the advantages and disadvantages should not be distributed by one single power. For example the governing body of Omelas should not decide who the person is who gets locked away so the rest may prosper. In fact it should be the basic structure of society that decides who that is. For example someone who is too poor and without a job will be the one with the disadvantages placed on them because of the job market in the society as opposed to being chosen randomly. Also there are other reasons that person is placed into that position such as the business they worked for shut down or they laid off people.

                My second theory of Social Justice was that the advantages and disadvantages of society should be distributed among the population evenly. According to Millers opinion about value to the society affecting the advantages placed on you, there is no way for this theory to function. In other words for this theory to work the people who do more work like bosses who were higher educated would make the same money and benefits as the Janitor who only had a high school education. It seems like a cruel thing to say but it is essentially what this theory is suggesting through the equality of all the people.

                Also the distributions among the society cannot be equal according to Miller in the sense that it isn't a violation of the individuals personal freedoms. For example it is not a disadvantage upon one person to not be able to afford a luxury like a yacht because it is not one of the basic requirements of humanity expected for each person to receive. In the realistic universe not everyone can afford but if everything was distributed evenly it is believed that everyone would have the opportunity to own such a luxury however the market of these objects would crash. There would be no sign of social status in the world through these objects. Depending on your opinion this may be a good or bad thing but I believe that Miller thinks it would be a bad thing because of the example of the boss should be making money because of the things he did in his life to put him in that position. People should have to earn the advantages provided in life as opposed to an equal society being forced to provide it to them without them having to try.