Where There is Love, There is Pain Envisioning Social Justice

Three Configurations of Justice Recognition Reparations Revitalizations

Justice as Recognition Acknowledging and Validating Difference Race, Able-bodiedness, Gender, Sexuality, Nationality, Immigration Status Full attention to histories of oppression, violence, exclusion, and marginality based upon difference Genocide, Social Hierarchies, War, Violence, Conquest and Imperialism, including Cultural Imperialism Full attention to the present-day remnants and impacts of oppression Differences in social and economic status, wealth, access to positions of power and privilege in institutions of everyday life.

Justice as Recognition (cont) Valuing different understandings of identity and community Acknowledging the different roles that indigenous cultures/spiritiual worldviews play in current day descendants of oppressed groups Acknowledging and respecting the need for oppressed groups to establish sites of healing and resistance that exclude privileged members of society Third cultures: Acknowledging the complex relationships that people have to “America” and American exceptionalism

Justice as Reparations Finding ways to repair hurts from past injustices, atrocities, and exploitations Disidentifying with harmful ideologies Actively betraying structures of power and privilege that position you as beneficiary of harmful ideologies Acknowledging that reparation requires “giving up” unearned power, privilege, access, resources, capital, and space

Justice as Revitalization Actively building and creating coalitions meant to challenge injustice Allowing the most disenfranchised/powerless groups to establish the tone and agenda of social justice organizations Actively deconstructing binaries that separate the spiritual from discussion and practices of social justice and ethics. Creating spaces for storytelling, conversation, song, and creative expression that critique status quo ideologies-- homeplaces