A Place to Begin: Awareness, Reflection, Critical Thinking
In our efforts to understand diversity and social justice issues and to develop cultural competence aimed at social change, we start with ourselves. We as social workers need to conscientiously engage in a process of becoming aware of our personal values and beliefs about social justice, reflect on where those values and beliefs originated, and engage in critical thinking about the implications of our current perspective.
We often hear the expression life is not fair, especially when something bad has happened to us or to someone we care about. The expression is perhaps a manifestation of a belief that life is, indeed, not fair. Is it fair that our destinies are often shaped and determined by accident of birth (i.e., by race, gender, class, abilities, country of origin, etc.)? A more relevant question, when considering issues of social justice, might be: Is life just?
Reflection Exercises
What are rights? What do people have a right to (i.e., what should people get just because they are human beings)?
What are privileges (i.e., what do people deserve because they have earned it)?
Now consider the following more focused questions;
Is it fair to take (through taxes) from one group and give to another group? When is it fair and when is it not fair? Does it have to do with rights or privileges? When is it a form of justice, and when is it an infringement on people’s freedom?
If there is a situation in which the goods and services produced are inadequate to satisfy everyone’s desire for them, on what basis or according to what principles can they be distributed justly? For example, if you believe that everyone has a right to food and there is an inadequate supply, how eo you distribute it? If you believe that having food is a privilege, then what do people have to do to earn it? And what should be done when people who have not earned it get it and those who earn it do not get it?
The assignment should be a minimum of one page, typed in APA format.
