AboutJoyce D Expertise Religious Educator (former director for six years, lifelong Unitarian Universalist - "UU"). I`m familiar with UU history & resources on the internet. I belong to many UU forums, have attended many congregations, and have been a delegate at the UU General Assembly.
Expert: Joyce D Date: 2/7/2005 Subject: Social Justice
Question I need a greater understanding of "Social Justice", particularly as it is related to racism toward African-Americans. Our local minister talks about changing social policies and activities which are designed to undo the injustices suffered by African-Americans in the past. I need to understand the religous or philisophical basis and an actual definition for "social justice" and as UU's the actions needed to restore "social justice". Thanking you inadvance for your answer.
Answer Hi R E Greene,
I don't think UUs have a definition per se for "social justice". Justice has been defined, as with most words, by society's usage. You can look it up in a dictionary.
I guess that you don't really need a definition, but you're especially confused about it when it has to do with anti-racism (working against racism) as opposed to non-racism (not being a racist). Most UUs are not racists (intentionally), but they find it hard to do anything about racism besides not being racist. Finding the injustice can be hard for people who are not victims of injustice, especially when that injustice is subtle in today's world.
The statistics show a disproportionate number of black children in poverty, in poor schools, and in prison in comparison to whites. This is not a coincidence or because of some inate characteristic of blacks vs. whites. It is the result of a long history of racism. "White privilege" includes the privilege to not see these problems if we so choose, whereas most black people can't ignore them. There are some blacks now who have lived in privilege, mostly it's because they live in segregated middle-class neighborhoods with most of the necessary resources just as most whites do - there aren't many, though.
The article that helped me with this concept the best is "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack." Here's a link for it (this site doesn't make links clickable, but you can have this message emailed to you where your email will probably make it clickable or you can copy and paste it in another window) - it's a very short article, though there are tons of books you can read, too.:
The best place to start is through dialogue to find out what the injustices are - open it up to the broader community - to people of color. Your district office has people who are trained to help with that. Isn't it unjust for UUs to keep the joy and freedom of a liberal religious faith to themselves and not share it with people of color (African Americans, Latinos, & others)? UUism has a much bigger white population than the general population and we don't openly share it, is that just? The excuse is that we don't want to prostelytize, but there are plenty African-Americans who are educated and who don't go to church. Here is a brief history of racial struggles within UUism.:
