Justice is a word that can be interpreted or defined differently with every person that you ask. Every person has a different idea of what justice is through their own personal environments and growths or how they may have experienced justice, or not experienced it for that matter, themselves. I don't believe that although, there is a definition in a dictionary that it can be universally applied in areas when justice is so broad. Does justice mean that every individual is treated the same and equally as the rest? Or is justice giving each individual what they deserve even if it may come with a price of inequality?
Personally, I believe justice means being fair, aiming to reach equality, and being punished if you've done something wrong. When justice comes to my mind, I automatically think about criminal justice above all else because I feel that is what I am most bombarded with. However, since starting this class, I have realized all the different types of justice there really are. We've been looking at social justice for the past couple weeks and it has been such an eye-opener. Am I glad we are bringing these topics to light? Yes. I think we all have an ingrained idea of what right and wrong is but we also learn from our environment and some ideas we have definitely need to be changed. Especially when it comes to the different privileges that are apparent in our everyday lives.
In the US, I think it is next to impossible to get away from all the different social classes along with wealth barriers from one group to the next. I believe if you are a white male, your perception of what justice is going to be very different from a Black or Latino male and it is going to be quite the shock if their definitions of justice would be similar. For example, Troy Davis will not have the idea of justice being a fair practice. He will ultimately face death due to the maltreatment of power during his time of arrest. It is hard for me to comprehend that in this day and age and especially how far we have come that we are still allowing these forms of injustice every day. It is really quite sad.
I believe that justice should also have the idea of forgiveness tied into it. I believe to be a just society we need to realize that mistakes happen and we need to work as a community to fix them. We cannot be just without forgiveness.
I read this article regarding the injustice occurring in Cairo and the protestors fighting to regain justice in their communities against the people who are to be serving their community, the police.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/04/us-egypt-tahrir-idUSTRE7130Z720110204
It seems that it's very difficult to be fair for everyone. In that sense, being fair to whom should be examined reasonably.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts.