Every Day Is Special: February 20 - World Day of Social Justice

February 20 - World Day of Social Justice

Posted on February 20, 2019

You know what? EVERY day should be Social Justice Day.

But it's also good to have a yearly event when we especially focus on something that should be part of every society all the time. We can use the focus to ask questions like "How are we doing?" and "How can we do better?"

This particular holiday is part of the United Nation's work to make the world a better place, together.

Social justice is defined as the fair distribution of wealth, of opportunities, of privileges.

There are a few things we tend to focus on these days:

Breaking down barriers

If some people in society (poor people, for example) cannot get higher eduction, that's a Social Justice problem.
If some people (gay people, for example) cannot marry the person they love, that's a SJ problem.
If some people (women, for example) don't get promoted in accordance with their experience and capability, that's a SJ problem.

The creation of safety nets

All of us are going to get sick at some point.
Those of us lucky enough to live long enough will become elderly; some jobs that are fine for strong 30 year olds are not okay for 75 year olds.
Some of us will face some sort of natural disaster at some point.
Some of us will, through no fault of our own, face loss of a job or will need to do unpaid work taking care of a loved one.
Taking care of society members running into these sorts of problems is a Social Justice issue.

"Into all lives some storms will come," people say.
Are our "safety net" programs protective enough?

I believe that, in the U.S., we went from "good, but not good enough"
(above) to "way, way, way worse" (below).

Economic justice

Banking laws are meant to keep our economic system stable and to protect people against those who would cheat them or speculate with their money.
Tax codes are meant to provide for the common good in a way that is fair to everyone.
But rich people are able to do shenanigans that make them richer - finding loopholes, coming right up to the edge of the illegal while knowing that they have top lawyers if things go wrong, paying lobbyists to lean on legislators to jigger the laws or make exceptions to the laws, creating shell corporations that will hide money, even paying off people to look the other way.
It is a part of Social Justice to hold rich people accountable to systems and laws so that they pay their fair share of taxes and follow the laws that apply to the rest of us.