VUSM 280 Final Paper
Erin Washington
Viterbo University
VUSM Final Paper
Intercultural Knowledge
Social injustice involves oppression, privilege, prejudice, and discrimination. Oppression occurs when social forces tend to hold people down and block their pursuit of a good life. (Hart, 2014a). According to Johnson, “Oppression results from the social relationship between privileged and oppressed categories, which makes it possible for individuals to vary in their personal experience of being oppressed” (2006, p. 38). In order to have the experience of being oppressed, it is necessary to belong to an oppressed category (Johnson, 2006, p. 38). Next, privilege is when one group has something of value that is denied
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128). Another aspect of social injustice is prejudice. It occurs when we judge a person based only on stereotypes about them, rather than a rational evaluation of the facts available to us (Hart, 2014c). Prejudice is an attitude and can have both negative and positive feelings associated with it. It involves both ideas and feelings and an example of the involvement of ideas and feelings would be the idea that whites are superior to people of color, and the negative feelings they associate with that assumption (Johnson, 2006, p. 54). Discrimination is another part of social injustice where the unfair treatment of people is based on some social characteristic where prejudice is put into action. Discrimination can be either blatant, where it involves hate crimes or physical aggression, or subtle where avoidance, exclusion, or rejection is used as a tactic (Hart 2014c). It is connected to how we think and feel about people, and those assumptions or stereotypes about a person or a group can play a major role in discrimination (Johnson, 2006, p. 54).
Media plays a big role in the stereotypes we assign to a particular group and whether those words used to describe that group are positive or negative. My understanding of these concepts of social injustice has changed over the semester in that I never consciously noticed how much of an impact the media plays on teaching these stereotypes and
The academic reading, “The Social Construction of Difference”, by Allan G. Johnson provided detail examples of how the construction of society is constructed based on privilege and oppression. Johnson explains how privilege is a matter of being a certain group that is highly value than the other group of people. Oppression is what is lead to since it’s when a privilege group is feeling superior and wanting to take control over certain
The media in our lives has the strongest impact on our everyday conversations, actions, judgments and perception on society as a whole. Without our modern day technology the world would result to judgments based on their own personal beliefs, not being so easily persuaded by others. The contemporary media portrays Black and Hispanic Americans in numerous positive ways, but more so in a negative light. The stereotypes that these minorities have been given not only affect the community as a whole, but the personal lives of each individual. Although the media can be used for good, the captivating movies, news stories, and documentaries seem to have a negative outcome. The medias focus on Black and Hispanic Americans has not always been bad, but the stereotypes that have developed over the decades shed a negative light on these two racial and ethnic groups.
Social inequality is the issue pertaining to the lack of housing, health care, education, employment opportunities, and status. It is the dismissal of people from participation in what we, the members of society distinguish as being valuable, important, socially desirable, and personally worthwhile. There are many different perspectives on social inequality within our society; the three areas I am going to focus on are those of the Functionalist, Conflict and Symbolic-Interactionist.
Privilege and oppression provides a framework for understanding how institutional structures and ideologies shapes individual experiences. Privilege and oppression also explains “how power operates in society” which led to the formation of “a dominant group and a marginalized group” (Launius and Hassel, Threshold Concepts, 72-73). “Oppression can be defined as prejudice and discrimination directed toward a group and perpetuated by the ideologies and practices of multiple social institutions” (Launius and Hassel, Threshold Concepts, 73). While, privilege refers to the “benefits, advantages, and power that accrue to members of a dominant group as a result of the oppression of marginalized group”,
Oppression exists at varying levels and the way in which we choose to view it can have a significant impact on our ability to break down the barriers that continue to oppress disenfranchised groups. Much like the analogy of a caged bird facing both individual cage wires as well as the confining cage as a whole, examining the microscopic and macroscopic levels of oppression is essential in furthering our understanding of social justice. Long-term and persisting injustices towards subordinate social groups can also lead to internalized oppression, creating a complex system of disempowerment and self-loathing. As members of society committed to social change, it is important that we continue to educate ourselves on the issues of oppression and oppressed groups while ensuring we act at allies and advocates in our efforts to tackle these barriers.
Social injustice is any issue when unfair practices are being carried out in society. Social injustice effects many groups today, especially minorities. Societal isms are the prejudicial attitudes directed against groups that society identifies as “lesser”-less capable, less productive, and less normal.
Throughout history, the media has been known to be influential towards how individuals of society perceive the world and their environment. This influence can lead to people creating prejudices towards those who are highlighted by the media. It also has the ability to change the attitude of one person towards another class of people and stereotype them in positive, but mostly negative ways. One population that has played victim to the repercussions of the mass media is Asian Americans, who have been oppressed and deemed a minority by Americans. The media’s portrayal of Asian Americans has had detrimental effects on one’s opportunities, performance, and their perception of the world.
The fundamental root of discrimination is prejudice. Prejudice starts with cognition and our thoughts towards another group which often leads to a generalization or stereotyping (Myers, 2014, pg.572). Stereotyping leads us to emotions directed towards a particular group or person; including fear, hatred, and hostility, fundamentally this is negative prejudice (Myers, 2014, pg.572). Myers (2014) states that if we believe our thoughts to be true, our emotions will lead to the actual act of discrimination. Taking action on prejudice is discrimination; it is the behaviours or actions directed towards a specific distinction of a group (Myers, 2014, ph.572). We do know that discrimination can take many forms, some acceptable and others purely inexcusable.
Social injustice can range from anything such as; immigrants being depicted in the U.S, to a women getting yelled out by a man because of her social position. Social injustice can be seen all over our society. However, with the exception of some situations being greater then others, it can be agreed that social conflict is everlasting and ever-changing in our society.
We are regularly exposed to media in our everyday lives. Within media, gendered and social messages are exploited throughout. Though very unsurprising, we eternalize and model what we see in popular films and media. This, in turn, creates a cycle of never ending stereotypes and unequal, double-standard social systems. We may think that we are immune to these toxic images, but in actuality, we all internalize them in some way.
“Media stereotypes are inevitable, especially in the advertising, entertainment and news industries, which need as wide an audience as possible to quickly understand information. Stereotypes act like codes that give audiences a quick, common understanding of a person or group of people—usually relating to their class, ethnicity or race, gender, sexual orientation, social role or occupation.”
One of notable contributions of social psychology is research on social justice (Jost & Kay, 2010), racism, and prejudice (Ross, Lepper, & Ward, 2010). Within the topic of social justice, themes such as equality, equity, liberty, morality, and others are studied. The surge of academic attention in social justice post World War II partially attributes to the political interest in fighting fascism. Nevertheless, issues that are related social equality are continuing to be relevant today. A challenging aspect of this topic is a lack of consensus among scholars with regards to its definition. Moreover, understandings of social justice require integration of individual, group, and system level insights. Holding a balance between subjective and objective experiences with respect to what construed as just is essential. Understandings gained from research would assist researchers to identify obstacles to fair community including selfishness, laziness, human tendency to dehumanize perceived enemies, and common social misconceptions. Research results can assist the public to encourage dialogues integral to social justice (Jost & Kay, 2010).
Mass media is a form of communication that presents and delivers information to a larger audience. Throughout society, it is evident that mass media is a true determinant in how we perceive different groups of people. This is due to the fact that mass media presents different groups in a specific and stereotypical way, ultimately shaping our perceptions of the outgroup that is based solely on what is presented in the media. The media formats that present groups in stereotypical situations include not only news and television broadcasts, but also movie and film production. Thus, the proliferation and popularity of movies has contributed to the overall shift in our perceptions of different social groups.
On the other hand, another injustice that is apparent in our society is inequality. It causes us to feel insecure, unimportant and unequal. People make others feel less with words and actions. Sometimes we do it subconsciously, meaning that we don’t think of the outcome and the damage that we cause them emotionally. When that happens, people feel like they don’t
Firstly, it is important to clearly define what prejudice is, in order to gauge the issue more easily. Simply put, discrimination is the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things. However, there are many different forms that it can take. Age discrimination, for example, involves treating someone (an applicant or employee) less favorably because of his or her age. Another example is sex discrimination, which involves treating someone adversely, solely because of that person 's gender. However, one of the most pressing matters of prejudice is racial discrimination, where an individual is treated differently because he or she is of a certain race or because of personal characteristics associated with race, such as hair texture,