Justice asks, “Who did it?” Social justice asks, “Why did he do it?”
They say we need social justice to even things out. And that means favoring the have-nots over the haves—the poor over the rich, the female over the male, and the brown or black over the white.
The Bible does not see the world this way. In fact, it speaks against it in very explicit terms. Here’s a law in the Book of Exodus: “Do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd, and do not show favoritism to a poor person in a lawsuit.” Here’s one in Leviticus: “Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great but judge your neighbor justly.” Moses, the greatest lawgiver in history, declares in Deuteronomy: “Follow justice and justice alone.” And the New Testament declares in the Book of Romans: “God shows no partiality.” None of this means that there is no place for compassion in a system of justice. Of course, there is. The Bible is preoccupied with the protection of the widow, the orphan, and unfortunate. But compassion follows justice. It doesn’t precede it.
1. Wokeism is a social justice movement that aims to address sytemic inequalities. The movement encourages individuals to examine their own biases and privleges and actively work towards creating a more just and equitable society. 2. Wokeism places a strong emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion and recognizes the importance of representation and equal opportunities for marginalized groups in all areas of society. The movement involves a wide range of practices and strategies, including community organizing, activism, allyship, and education, all aimed at advancing social justing goals. 3. Wokeism is based on social conflict theory, which asserts that society is divided by power struggles between different social groups, and that these struggles are the driving force behind social change. The movement seeks to challenge and dismantle systems of oppression, including racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and other forms of discrimination.
This idea of social justice is so dangerous because it seeks to change everything around you. In orthodox, it is the opposite, it seeks to change us. You can’t change what you don’t have.
But brick by brick, the university has made this kind of intellectual exploration impossible. It has transformed a bastion of free inquiry into a Social Justice factory whose only inputs were race, gender, and victimhood and whose only outputs were grievance and division.
I witnessed students refusing to engage with different points of view. Questions from faculty at diversity trainings that challenged approved narratives were instantly dismissed. Those who asked for evidence to justify new institutional policies were accused of microaggressions. And professors were accused of bigotry for assigning canonical texts written by philosophers who happened to have been European and male.
Why should racial consciousness be the lens through which we view our role as educators?
The more I read the primary source material produced by critical theorists, the more I suspected that their conclusions reflected the postulates of an ideology, not insights based on evidence.