Social (In)justice

2 Oct

Stephenson is what one would consider a charismatic speaker. He lights a fire under you and you want to continue watching what he has to say.  I watched this video two days ago, so I am cloudy on how Stephenson defined social (in)justice. Webster’s Dictionary defines social injustice as the distribution of advantages and disadvantages in a society. This is also known as Egalitarianism.
I vividly remember Stephenson saying that when he went to Germany, he asked about their capital death policy and the people at the meeting looked appalled. This is ironic, considering Germany’s dark history. They have no room to talk! He believes deciding someone else’s life is socially unjust.
To add to this, Stephenson speaks of a thirteen year old African American boy that was held accountable for an adult crime, such as murder, in adult court. I personally do not believe this is socially unjust since he committed murder, but I agree with him whole-heatedly, thinking children should not be tried in adult court with the high possibility of capital death. He jokingly tells the crowd that if the jury tried the boy as a seventy year old Caucasian man, the end result would be different.
Stephenson speaks of when Rosa Parks, his grandmother, and elderly city officials reminisced of their past. As they reminisced, Rosa Parks spoke of the time she knew clearest; being kicked off the back of the bus and she held her own, staying there. Rosa Parks described to him how difficult being a black woman was at the time and how it was socially unjust.

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