Reflection Paper: Two Days Of Social Justice

Introduction

A wise man once stated that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (King, 1963). However even Martin Luther King, Jr. fell short of reaching the pedestal that is pure social justice, sacrificing and ultimately firing his Chief Organizer, Bayard Rustin, because he was gay (Wilber, 2011). No one can live in a vacuum of an unwavering, socially-just mindset all of the time; not even those considered leading pioneers for social justice. This became evident during my “Two Days of Social Justice” experience as a participant observation. I observed two days at my job where I run a day program for individuals with intellectual disabilities. To examine these experiences, the following definition of social justice will

People [should not be] discriminated against, nor their welfare and well-being constrained or prejudiced on the basis of gender, sexuality, religion, political affiliations, age, race, belief, disability, location, social class, socioeconomic circumstances, or other characteristic of background or group membership. (Robinson)

During both days of social justice, discrimination based on disability was most prevalent. While my facility works to promote equal opportunity for lower functioning individuals, staff members struggle immensely with age appropriate language, activity, and perspective of the outlook for a person with a disability. I will use these interpretations to investigate how social justice can be encouraged through implementation of experiential assignments.

As a participant observer, the events successfully flowed together naturally, though allowed for biases regarding what questions I asked or when I chose to be present. Also, I am unable to elicit the feedback of my clients in order to find out what they would view as age appropriate or dignified. Qualitative analysis forced me to interpret what staff thought was “age-appropriate”, but found quantifiable measurements in these settings difficult. While I could take two out of eight staff members as my sample, it still would not prove sufficient for quantifying their views of themselves or clients as being a social