Hello long-forgotten blog! It has been some time, but I wanted to revisit this space so I can continue with a project in one of my classes. I am currently in my second year in the M.Ed. of Student Development Administration at Seattle University, and for this fall 2016 quarter I am taking a class called Social Justice in Professional Practice. For this class, I have been asked to embark on a social justice action project, and for this project I have chosen to explore environmental justice more in-depth.
Before I go into what my project would be, I wanted to pull some excerpts from my previous reflection journals that captures some of my questions, fears, and privileges.
In my first journal on 9/28, I wrote the following:
"I am really looking forward to this class because I think it came at a perfect time in my life to allow me to become a better social justice educator in higher education institutions. With my past experiences with social justice in the LGBTQIA* communities, and advocating for better mental health awareness and rape and sexual assault prevention and awareness, and as a cis, bisexual women, I feel like I have personal experience to define what social justice means to me. Reflecting on the activity we did in class, I believe that social justice is about everyone having the same opportunity to live, thrive, learn and grow, and should not have to experience violence or micro-aggressions that create obstacles to achieving this goal. If someone experiences violence or is denied a basic right, it is an injustice that our society needs to correct because I agree with the authors of
Social justice: Theories, issues and movements, Capeheart and Milovanovic that as humans, we live in a social world. Since we cannot separate ourselves from society, we have a moral requirement to learn to exist together and advocate for each other. In order to engage in social justice, I think it’s important that we start conversations within our communities, and for me that has been with issues that are personally important to me. I have experienced injustice in terms of not getting the mental health care I need, and being looked down upon, ignored, and silenced by family, friends, and society as a queer woman, and I live with the anger and passion to want to right these wrongs in others’ lives even if I cannot right them in my own. These experiences have helped me understand what social justice is.
Now with this class and our readings, I feel like I will be able to look deeper into my personal meanings of social justice, be able to explore a variety of theories and models about justice and examine historical attempts to gain justice through movements. It is my hope that through this class I can develop better language to talk about social justice in a way that others can understand the importance of not just equality, but equity. One conception of justice that resonated with me was Grace Clement’s (1998) concept that the ethic of justice cannot be reached without the ethic of care, of which all genders complement each other and “must remain in an oscillating state for more genuine justice to take place” (Capeheart & Milovanvic, 2007). Also, that we should consider relational factors like attachment, connectedness, relations, and context as most important because of our social nature and environments (p. 23).
I know I still have a lot to learn, especially because of my privileges as a white able-bodied woman who has citizenship in America, and I hope to gain a better understanding of others experiences that I do not see. Not only that, I want to continue to be an advocate for others who do not have the capital or whose voice is silenced by our unjust society. However, I still fear that I am a “bad” ally because sometimes do and/or say the wrong things, like something that is racist or ablest. I know my intentions are good, but I still need to unlearn many of the things that I have been socially conditioned to believe and learn how to become a better ally for marginalized individuals. I see myself as a baby elephant, who has seen and experienced a lot of emotions and wants to be strong for others, but I recognize that I still have a lot to learn and need to become wise by being a life-long learner."
This first reflection, and the three following it, helped me realize that I focus too much on my salient identities because it directly impacts me. Therefore, I should focus more on other issues that I am not directly impacted by because I have come to learn that social justice and environmental justice go hand in hand, you cannot have one without the other. So, in order to advocate for social justice, I must advocate for environmental justice as well.
My fourth reflect helped me dig deeper into this journey, as follows:
"Much of the social justice action that I have engaged in has centered around my salient identities and the oppression and/or opportunity that results from each identity. I try to use my privilege as a white woman in America by engaging in free speech to speak out about issues that are important to me, including advocating for areas of my identity that are marginalized (i.e. sexual and gender identity, disability status, etc.). As I evaluate the actions I’ve already taken, I see that I focus on areas that have impacted me, so I know to some extent how it feels to experience the type of oppression, marginalization, or challenges each individual may be facing. However, an area I often do not consider is environmental and ecological justice because it does not always directly impact me. While I know that we need to take care of our world, and I am aware of the unequal distribution of resources on our planet, I often strive to engage in social justice that centers on people’s identities and how that impacts the resources they have access to. I have neglected to consider how each person’s environment also impacts their access to resources, and through this weeks’ reading have come to understand that one cannot talk about social justice without also talking about environmental justice because “issues of fairness and quality of life are interconnected” (Capeheart &Milovanovic, 2007, p. 95). I may continuously strive to ensure a better quality of life for all, but I also need to do so “while living within the limits of supporting ecosystems” (p. 95).
As I reflect, I have noticed that while I think about helping the environment, I often put the environments needs second, and do not consider them as important as human rights. However, the more I learn through this class, the more I have come to realize that they are one in the same because humans need a healthy environment to survive and thrive. Without a healthy place to live, we deny communities of people the right to sound and adequate housing, which is considered a basic human right by the United Nations. While it is difficult to create and assess a universal definition of equal treatment and distribution of our natural resources or adequate housing, it is something that needs to always be part of the conversation. It does because housing and environmental justice is linked to both racial and economic inequalities that cannot be resolved without distributive justice (p. 103). Some theorists say that people of color or low-income families choose to live in bad ecological areas that are harmful to their well-being, but I think it is pretty clear that these communities of people have no other choice financially but to live in bad areas in order to survive, not thrive."
I have decided for this social justice action project, I will reduce my carbon footprint by creating less waste and donating more of my lightly used or unused goods to charitable organizations. This type of social and environmental justice action would benefit our environment, which would in turn create less waste to end up in low-income areas, as most of our waste often does. Part of me worries that this is a selfish action to take, as it does not directly impact others as I’m focus on my own capitalistic actions as a consumer, but this is also why I plan on collecting items of food and clothing to donate to local food banks and donation centers. Since this quarter has started and as I through about my social justice action project, I decided to get more involved in a planning a food drive though the National Association of Student Affairs Professionals when the regional conference comes to Seattle in November. For this event, I will be collecting resources to help local organizations get resources that are often overlooked or under-donated like winter clothing items, women’s sanitary products, and fresh fruit and vegetables.
A huge factor that often prevents me from trying to engage in more sustainable actions is money. Not having a lot of extra money to spend prevents me from participating in these types of food and clothing drives, and makes it difficult to buy more sustainable, environmentally friendly items, but I believe that it has to still be possible to be more sustainable on a budget. I can research ways to not create waste, and even though I already compost and recycle, find ways to compost more and create minimal garbage. Some ways I already engage in this type of sustainability is using lights as little as possible, unplugging electronics when not in use, and air drying clothes after washing them. It becomes difficult for me when I think about engaging in this type of social justice action in my professional life, because I know I do not set the environmental policies for the school. Often times, the places I choose to work already have mission statements that address the environment, and there are often places to compost, but I do not know what else I could do to make it better. In the past, my workplace has chosen to turn off all electricity, including lights and electronics for one hour, called The Hour of Darkness, but this is only a small impact and could halt office productivity. I will continue to think of ideas of how to engage in both environmental and social justice in both my personal and professional life as I continue my social justice project for this class.
The actions I plan on take include, recording all of the waste I produce and documenting it, seeking items I already own and donating them, purchasing extra food with coupons to donate to local food banks, and using less electricity.
Wish me luck! I will be posting updates and reflections as I begin this journey to become more sustainable.
References:
Capehart, L., & Milovanovic, D. (2007). Social justice: Theories, issues and movements. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
