The Meaning Of Social Injustice

“When you get to a place where you understand that love and belonging, your worthiness, is a birthright and not something you have to earn, anything is possible,” according to Brené Brown, a scholar, author, and public speaker. Junior, the main protagonist of the novel “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” by Sherman Alexie, tries to find a place to truly belong to throughout the piece. However, Junior shifts between two different societies in the book; Wellpinit, the reservation Junior lives on, and Reardan, the school in a mostly-white neighborhood outside of Wellpinit that Junior attends. While Junior is a part of both communities, by the end, Junior belongs

At first Junior didn't like himself; he was constantly beaten up, he had a lisp and stuttered so he had no self-confidence. When he made the decision to go to Reardan, a white school, even Rowdy left him. Rowdy thought Junior was betraying their school by going away and transferring so Rowdy didn't talk to Junior anymore. Without his best friend, Junior completely lost hope. He was scared of the white people and did not expect them to welcome him. He was right. Most of the Americans were cold to him and he did not try to raise his status. Many of the white people made fun of him, and when one guy, Roger, said "Did you know that Indians are living proof that niggers f*** buffalo?" (pg. 64) he felt that he had to stop it. So he punched him. Junior was expecting to get punched back, but he didn't. In the Indian Reservation, he

Once Martin Luther King Jr. the American Minister announced, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” What Martin Luther King Jr. is saying here is that injustice can spread out everywhere unnoticeably quick and it can shape everyone’s identity. Just a bit of injustice can modify a person from their thinking to their physical forms. To go through injustice is a big deal, and to act on it is rare. In Arnold Junior’s diary, A Diary Of Part-Time Indian, By Sherman Alexie, Junior is faced with multiple injustices, and to act on them, he leaves the reservation and goes to a “White people only” school, Reardan. The ones that he left behind have a much hatred on Junior, but he knows better than that. He can’t look back. The only choice left for him is to keep going forward. Similarly,in the book A Long Way Gone, by Ishmael finds himself at a loss because he had lost all his family and lots of his friends during the civil war in Sierra Leone, and he doesn’t know where they are or if they are alive or dead,he is suddenly joined the government and is known as the boy soldier. He is hurt everywhere. He doesn’t know anything at all, but he has to keep going. Many individuals like Junior and Ishmael faced with injustice suffer great loss, but in order to prevent more loss from happening, they have to take big risks. This might lead to much hatred from those left behind. However, when they draw on an inner resilience they are able to succeed in their quest for justice.

Junior is leaving everything he knew to go looking for hope by transferring to Reardan, a white school twenty two miles away from the reservation. Mr.P suggested that Junior go as far as he can be away from the reservation because Mr. P said “The only thing you kids are being taught is how to give up” (42). This quote is showing that he is saying that Indians kids are not giving the same opportunity as other kids. They are surrounded with people that are losing hope, in turn, this will teach them that there is nothing more in life. Which will eventually lead them to a hopeless life. A

In this part of the book Junior is complaining about how his education isn't what he wants it to be. It's not good enough. This is when he realizes how bad his education and school system is. To show his outrage, Junior throws the book across the room His teacher and him then each confirm with each other what education and school means to them. Soon afterward, Junior starts to realize that something needs to change. Junior contemplates about what he wants to do and finally decided to go to the all white school, Reardan. Junior explained to his parents, ¨ I want to go to reardan,¨Í said. Reardan is the rich, white farm town that's in the wheat fields exactly twenty-two miles from the rez. And it's a hick town. I suppose, filled with farmers and rednecks and racist cops who stop every indian that drives through”(46)..Junior decides he needs to take a stand for his future. He makes a tough decision that will impact his whole life. Even with the risk of being bullied and brought down by his tribe, he still decides to change his education for the better. Hence Junior being one of the only Indian kids in his school. He doesn't know how other people behave and their

One should get to know a person before judging them because impressions are not always accurate. In the novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Junior experiences racism on the Spokane Indian reservation and at Reardan, where Junior attends school. Racial discrimination makes the Indians on the reservation lose their sense of self-worth and they feel as if they deserve to be treated this way. At Reardan, Junior is in an atmosphere where his white classmates and teachers make racist jokes and nicknames targeting him. In the novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie explains how prejudice and discriminatory behaviour endorses negative relationships between people. This can be observed through Junior’s

Alexie, in his essay, talks about how his life was growing up on a Native American reservation in Washington state. A lifestyle that most Americans never know. Life as a Spokane Indian surrounding by a growing American society had its hardships, as Alexie explains. According to Alexie, most Spokane families living on the reservation lived a life that we in modern American society would label poverty, but the Spokane call it “middle-class.” Growing up, most of the food brought to the table in Alexie’s home was that of government surplus, thanks to federal sanctions on Native reservations, but his family managed to scrape by like any other Spokane, usually through a minimum wage income.

In Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Junior is a young American Indian that is shy and has low self-esteem, and has a few issues physically and his surroundings. He has a best friend named Rowdy. Rowdy is rude and has no emotion to any situation. What many people at the reservation don’t know is that Rowdy and Junior have real problems at home with their parents. The differences between Rowdy and Junior are the family and the personalities.

Junior makes the Rearden basketball team, has good grades and escapes the rez in his first year of high school despite his experience with racism, poverty and bullying. Through Juniors maturation and perseverance he has taught Junior to not allow racism to sp him from what he loves, he does not allow poverty to change the way he wants to live his life. Moreover, he does not

In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Junior sees so much hatred. He’s in the unique position throughout the whole book where he can see both sides. He sees how much the white people hate the Indians and how much the Indians hate the white. He even receives much of the hatred himself.

My graduating class has a reunion every weekend at the Powwow Tavern” (Alexie2). This quote from Sherman Alexie’s “Indian Education” represents how reservation life results in a life cycle of depression and large amounts of risk-taking among Indians who feel confined to what the reservation has to offer. Throughout the short story Junior, whom is both narrator and protagonist gives great insight into what life is like for a young Indian boy on and off the Spokane reservation. He is able to both identify with and distance himself from his Indian ancestors. In “Indian Education”, reservation life reveals the social depression experienced by the Indians, it defines who Junior is and who he

Native Americans on the reservations are at socially and economically disadvantage compared to persons who reside in metropolitan cities. Life advancement opportunities and individual accountability for better living standards are almost non-existence in many Native American communities. The environment that is around young adolescents are very

Reservation life was difficult. When the Seminoles got to the reservation there was barely any tents this was tough because the season was winter When the Seminole arrived at the reservation food was scarce. There was not enough blankets to keep them warm since it was the winter. There was barely any shoes so they had to walk barefoot the whole way to the reservation. There wasn’t enough winter clothes to keep them warm or other supplies they needed. There was heavy rain and snow. The weather conditions were tough to live in

The notion of justice is existence of proper balance of rights and its access under the laws of land. It refers to not depriving any person from availing privileges, opportunities etc. John Rawls writes, "Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override"It means that the interaction in a society must be free from any sort of discrimination such as religion, race, color, caste or sex. It ensures fair distribution of assets and equal opportunity. José P. Laurel defines Social Justice as “Social justice is neither communism, nor despotism, nor atomism, nor anarchy, but the humanization of laws and the equalization of social and economic forces by the state so that justice in its rational and objectively secular conception may at least be approximated.”

When will we stop being unjust? Our society today is full of problems and issues. We not only experience economic and politic issues, but we face social problems as well. One main problem that our society must acknowledge is injustice. However, many members of our society are blind not to recognize that permitting unjust and unfair acts is an actual injustice. They believe it’s appropriate to judge others, to make inappropriate comments and to be disrespectful.