Fight For Social Justice Research Articles

The “People’s Tour” as Conflict Pedagogy: Using Site Visits to Engage Students with the Struggle for Civil Rights

Winston-Salem, North Carolina, has a rich history of Civil Rights struggles and its people continue to resist racial oppression in systems of housing, labor, education, policing, transportation, and others. Dating to 1892, Winston-Salem State University (WSSU), a historically Black college/university (HBCU), has attracted students who have become organizers and activists in the fight for social justice in the local community. These include Theodosia Simpson, a leader of the radical Black women-led tobacco workers union; Carl Matthews, who started the first victorious lunch counter sit-in in North Carolina; and Dr. Larry Little, who co-founded the first official Black Panther Party chapter in the South. In that tradition, I have developed a “People’s History Tour of Winston-Salem” that takes current WSSU students outside the classroom to learn about the Civil Rights struggle at a variety of important sites. This critical pedagogy has students apply key sociological concepts that bolster their understanding of racial stratification and efforts to eradicate it. The goals of this assignment are for students to explore classroom curriculum about White supremacy, racial capitalism, and social movements at relevant historical and contemporary sites in Winston-Salem. By doing so, I aim for students to have transformative experiences that tie their readings and classroom discussions to the community spaces where that material comes alive.

Different perspectives on Latin American identity

The given research article deals with the discussion of issues concerning the identity of the Latin American people by examining its history and cultural representations as well as modern perceptions. Latin American people had a mixture of cultures in their own identity, as many ethnicities, such as pre-Columbian civilizations, colonial Europe, Africans, and contemporary socio-political movements, influenced them. To undertake this investigation, the study explores diverse multicultural views originating from different regions and people from social, political, and ethnic origins to acquire a perfect understanding of what it means to be a Latin American individual. This is evident in demonstrating the influence of the colonial past, the rich heritage of indigenous and African communities, and the dynamic nature of identity in provoking the problems of the present day as characterized by globalization, immigration, and change in leadership. Based on the case studies of Brazil, Mexico, and Bolivia, the article emphasizes that despite the diverse members of the region’s population, the residents continue to strive to create a united Latin American subject. The conclusion reiterates the authors’ approach to embracing this complex history and the fight for social justice in creating a united and integrated Latin American people.

Review: For the Culture: Hip-Hop and the Fight for Social Justice, edited by Lakeyta M. Bonnette-Bailey and Adolphus G. Belk, Jr.

Review: <i>For the Culture: Hip-Hop and the Fight for Social Justice</i>, edited by Lakeyta M. Bonnette-Bailey and Adolphus G. Belk, Jr.

TERFs aren’t feminists: lesbians stand against trans exclusion

In this article, I examine lesbians’ solidarity with trans people in the United States. Trans exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs) are feminists who believe that there is a stark difference between the biological reality of sex and the socially constructed nature of gender. They argue that sex is essential and innate. This leads some feminists to the argument that trans people are trying to infiltrate sex exclusive spaces. While TERFs are not always lesbians, lesbians are assumed to make up a large proportion of TERFs. As Thomsen and Essig argue that current ideologies within the media are allowing for the slippage between the terms “lesbian,” “feminist,” and “TERFs.” Some scholars are suggesting that equating lesbian identities with transphobia and trans exclusion is but a new form of lesbian marginalization. I utilize 49 in-depth, qualitative interviews with lesbians across the United States to interrogate the stereotype that lesbians are largely TERFs. Through the voices of lesbians across the United States, I illustrate how many lesbians despise TERF ideology and argue that lesbians must stand in solidarity with trans people in the fight for social justice.

For the Culture: Hip‐Hop and the Fight for Social Justice. Edited by Lakeyta M.Bonnette‐Bailey, and Adolphus G.Belk, Jr. U of Michigan P, 2022. 346 pp. $80.00 hardcover

For the Culture: Hip‐Hop and the Fight for Social Justice. Edited by Lakeyta M.Bonnette‐Bailey, and Adolphus G.Belk, Jr. U of Michigan P, 2022. 346 pp. $80.00 hardcover

For the Culture: Hip-Hop and the Fight for Social Justice, Lakeyta M. Bonnette-Bailey and Adolphus G. Belk Jr (eds) (2022)

Review of: For the Culture: Hip-Hop and the Fight for Social Justice, Lakeyta M. Bonnette-Bailey and Adolphus G. Belk Jr (eds) (2022) Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 321 pp., ISBN 978-0-47213-286-7, h/bk, USD 80.00

Disabled Sex Workers’ Fight for Digital Rights, Platform Accessibility, and Design Justice

Internet technologies are an increasingly necessary tool for sex working people, disabled people, and people who hold both identities to access resources, community, and income, as well as make claims to rights and fight for social justice. However, ongoing community research suggests that the failures of online platforms to address accessibility needs have had grave effects on sex workers, particularly those with disabilities. This article examines how normative whorephobic, racist, ableist user experience (UX) social media design intersects with punitive virtual content moderation systems to negatively impact disabled sex workers. To better understand how, we focus on unique problems faced by disabled people on the internet and how disability intersects with the sex trade and sexualization more broadly. We draw on data from our previous community research, Erased: The Impact of FOSTA-SESTA and the Removal of Backpage, in addition to Posting into the Void, to share experiences of sex workers navigating disability and discriminatory online systems. We highlight how whorephobic content moderation and punitive platform policing, exacerbated by FOSTA-SESTA, uniquely impact disabled sex workers, particularly those who depend on visual or aural aids to engage with social media. In doing so, we highlight critical intersections between disability justice, sex worker justice, and design justice to advocate for the importance of collaboration between movements.

Creating Connections through Storytelling: The African Diaspora Worldwide and Its Role in Us History

Creating Connections through Storytelling: The African Diaspora Worldwide and Its Role in Us History Jessica Smith (bio) On August 27, 1963—the day before various speakers from around the world stood addressing the massive crowd gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, and urged civil and economic equity—the world said goodbye to an American-born intellectual and international icon who had made Accra, Ghana, his second home: Dr. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois. With his death at ninety-five years of age, Du Bois’s life spanned from slavery to the fight for justice, equality, and cultural identity among members of what would later be collectively known as the African Diaspora.1 When news of the loss reached the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom the following day, a moment of silence was given for the activist, sociologist, and pan-Africanist who encouraged the strengthening of bonds between all ethnic groups of African descent, domestic and abroad. That same day, Executive Secretary of the NAACP Roy Wilkins reminded mourners at the march that the fight for social justice had been a long journey and it was Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois’s international voice “that was calling to you to gather here today in this cause.”2 Among those gathered that day for the cause were Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Josephine Baker, both of whom addressed the crowd gathered at the Lincoln Memorial. Of the two, Baker was the first to speak. In her speech, she talked of her “rocky path” and tumultuous times in her birth country of America, the differences between her treatment there and in France, the importance of education, and how her work and the work of many others helped to open doors for “not just the colored people, but the others as well, the other minorities too . . . both those here in the United States and those from India.”3 In harmony with the words of Baker, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood and spoke his now well-known words of a dream where his children would live in a nation where judgement would not be based on “the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”4 Though King was heavily involved in the movement for African American civil rights in the United States, he was a firm believer in W. E. B. Du Bois’s assertion of the interconnectedness of those of African descent regardless of where they reside, a sentiment that prompted his travel abroad to Ghana and his building of international links in the fight for peace and equality.5 Across the pond in an entirely different region from the American South, Josephine Baker—an American-born French entertainer and war hero—spent years in her adopted homeland as an opponent of racial segregation and discrimination, serving as an agent for the French Resistance during World War II and fighting Nazi occupation and its xenophobic regime in France.6 Despite their living and fighting for the civil liberties of the African Diaspora and [End Page 25] others in two different parts of the world, it was the unified cause of freedom—a cause bolstered by Du Bois’s earlier work—that brought Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Josephine Baker together at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in Washington, DC. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was a landmark event credited with helping to make positive changes countrywide in the United States of America, including the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.7 W. E. B. Du Bois, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Josephine Baker were just a few of the players in this pivotal chapter in the story of the African Diaspora and its resistance efforts for change. In the context of the March on Washington, it was the work and words of the aforementioned three figures that not only galvanized a worldwide civil rights movement, but helped to secure and sustain the rights and freedoms currently enjoyed globally by the diverse masses. In order to ensure that the cultural and historical fullness of the March on Washington is captured, it is essential to...

“It’s Our Job as People to Make Others Feel Valued”: Children Imagining More Caring and Just Worlds through Superhero Stories

This study explores the potential of fifth-grade children to take up, mold, and complicate the superhero genre to engage issues of social justice and equity in critical and dynamic ways. Using critical discourse and visual analysis, I explore the ideological and political work in the comics four students of color created as part of this study. I argue that, when given the opportunity to embody their full selves in the creation process to fight against issues of injustice that matter to them, children are more likely to imagine beyond conceptions of the child (e.g., being apolitical) and take on activist stances. Moreover, teachers have the power to encourage children to see themselves and their voices as important tools in the fight for social justice. This study pushes us to consider that we, as adults, can either help to expand the possibilities available to children or continue to perpetuate the inequities that children experience on a daily basis due to misconceptions of what it means to be a child and what children are capable of.

Social movements, community education, and the fight for racial justice: Black women and social transformation

AbstractThis article addresses the role of community learning within social movements and the fight for social justice and human rights. To understand contemporary social movements and their role in community learning and advocacy for social change, it is essential to contextualize them within the long history of Black women's activist labor and accomplishments. The #BLM movement is presented as a continuation of Black women's longstanding inclusive activism, punctuated by the Abolition, Suffrage, Civil Rights, and modern feminist movements. It highlights the efforts of specific Black women community leaders in creating counterpublics that make claims to power and work to change the status quo. Black women, through their inclusive, community‐based activist endeavors, continue to carve out fugitive spaces and counterpublics where counternarratives are actively generated to fight for a more equitable and inclusive democracy that serves all. This article conceptualizes the role of adult education in social movements and transformative change.

Meaning and Memory

Initiated in the 1970’s, the Appalachian Oral History Project contains thousands of oral histories collected from residents of the Central Appalachian region. A significant portion of these oral histories were conducted with Black residents of the region, thus serving as a repository of voices long left unheard in the dominant historical narrative. Like many such collections, the audio cassettes were left to gather dust for decades. A project has recently begun to digitize and preserve all of the oral histories. What do the oral histories in the AOHP collection have to say to us today about both Black identity in Central Appalachia and the use of oral history to confront questions of place and identity? More importantly, how do contemporary Black residents in one of the same communities in which the oral histories were originally conducted wish to respond to the recorded interviews? Digital recordings were played for Black residents of the same community from which many of the original oral histories were collected in order to foster conversation and dialogue about the material. Using ethnographic methods, this research illustrates the ways new forms of archival work and historical scholarship provide a crucial opportunity to enhance what we know of place and identity and allows for stories to be reclaimed by the people and communities from which they came. Within these intersections of theory, method, and discipline is found space for information science research to push beyond traditional boundaries and that wholly embrace the political and the fight for social justice.

Social Justice: Children's Literature as a Source of Information, Transformation, and Hope

Social Justice:Children's Literature as a Source of Information, Transformation, and Hope Janelle Mathis (bio) and Petros Panaou (bio) "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." Nelson Mandela This issue of Bookbird was conceptualized with the realization of the complexity of this term education and the varied perspectives that situate it across our global readership. We acknowledge that our children need to be "educated" to become part of a global society that strives to build understanding through personal introspection and intercultural competency. However, we also recognize that this is true for us—the adults seeking resources and strategies to nurture readers as they learn to recognize discrimination and equalities. We must also develop a sense of agency to advocate for change in ways that align with the needs of other cultures and to become thoughtful decision makers. This "education" requires resources that inform about and build local and global community through understanding both universal issues and those unique to particular areas or groups. We identified articles that we believe can help to push our understandings as individuals who read and strive to educate through children's literature, a most powerful asset in this process of enlightenment and change. Just as the Call for Manuscripts uses questions to bring forth current contemplation, both personal and scholarly, around children's literature, so the reading of the selected articles elicits questions as readers confront the ideas of others. These questions keep us motivated in our scholarly work around children's literature as we share literature with all ages of readers as well as bring these books to the forefront where they can be recognized globally, synthesized with the current issues they describe, and serve as a catalyst for transformation within and across our communities of learners. So, we will introduce the articles by sharing some of the questions that evolved and remain as we read and reread the scholarship found in this issue. "Boundary Crossings and Social Justice in A Girl Called Genghis Khan" by Tehmina Pirzada shares the story of Maria Toorpakai, a Pakistani squash champion. This story focuses on "Maria's cross-dressing and her [End Page 1] fight for social justice in her native Waziristan, the Taliban-controlled tribal belt of Pakistan" (6). We questioned our awareness of the struggle of Muslim women for equity and justice as we realized stories of Malala and The Breadwinner Trilogy (by Deborah Ellis) were our main sources of information—excellent but limited. What other resources can help expand our awareness of situations as this revealing opposition to the political polarization caused by an "us" versus "them" mentality? "After They Gave the Order: Students Respond to Canadian Indian Residential School Literature for Social Justice" by Lynne Wiltse was inspired by Deborah Ellis's 2018 IBBY keynote speech, "Before They Give the Order," which was printed in Bookbird, issue 57.1. This article shares a focus group conversation with five non-Indigenous elementary students who read a range of picturebooks, memoirs, and novels about the Canadian Indian residential school (IRS) system. We are left wondering how these stories of injustice are being used in classrooms globally that bring attention to situations around Indigenous groups and their long-term effects. In what ways are these stories considered outside of history and in light of current events? "'No Place Like Home': Immigration, Migration, and Loss in Two American Picturebooks" by Colin Haines returns readers to two older American picturebooks, Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say (1993) and Amelia's Road by Linda Jacobs Altman (1993), and discusses these in terms of contrasting idealizations of home using Freud's theory of mourning and melancholia. Familiar with these older books on immigration, the unique contrast here provoked the question of what current titles can be described within the tenets of this theory. How can this discussion support the use of immigration and refugee books in ways to nurture understanding in all readers around the issues that immigrants face when forced or choosing to seek a new home? "The Coin in the Rice in the Spoon: Perspectives within Perspectives in A New Year's Reunion" by Joe Sutliff Sanders and Xia Zhao...

Música popular y resistencia política en Venezuela (2002–2018)

This article analyzes the creative contributions to counterrevolutionary criticism in Venezuelan popular music (2002–2018). I examine how these musical productions reclaim discourses previously controlled by political power. From the working-class neighborhoods of cities such as Caracas and Maracay—Chavista territories par excellence—the emergence of a radical street consciousness bluntly attacks the symbolic apparatus of the Revolution. In this context, these cultural products question the government’s fight for social justice and equality. In the study of the musical representation of political dissent, I focus on denunciations of a failed state, portrayals of socioeconomic tribulations, and possible solutions to the national crisis.

The Role of Nurses as Allies Against Racism and Discrimination

The remnants of colonialism manifesting as structural violence, racism, and oppression continue to plague our society as evidenced by the persistence of health inequities, particularly for minority populations in the United States. As a profession bound by moral and ethical mandates, nursing must resist and deconstruct oppression in all its forms. Nurses, informed by critical race theory, intersectionality, and historical trauma, can become formidable allies with marginalized populations in the fight for social justice and health equity.

And When Does the Black Church Get Political?: Responding in the Era of Trump and Making the Black Church Great Again

The November 2018 midterm elections engaged more voters than any midterm election since World War I. Moreover, from a Black Church perspective, the midterm elections arguably engaged more constituent members in secular politics than any time since the Civil Rights Movement and the historic passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. If the axiom is true that, “For every action there is a reaction,” the series of actions that have been part of Donald J. Trump’s “Make America Great Again” narrative have been met with a reaction that is “Making the Black Church Great Again!” This interdisciplinary Article, juxtaposing aspects of law and theology, as well as history and sociology, asks the focal question, “And When Does the Black Church Get Political?” It uses an interdisciplinary approach to respond around a central thesis that Black Church politicization, as a fight for social justice, is responsive to certain sociopolitical and cultural events. In illustratively drawing a parallel between sociopolitical conditions during the Civil Rights Movement and those during the Era of Trump, this Article uses the African Methodist Episcopal Church as a quasi-case study in arguing the Black Church “gets political” when it responds to the needs of marginalized and oppressed people. In addition to an extended literature review, this Article engages ethnographic research by using a set of fixed questions addressed to five members of the Council of Bishops of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in outlining a theology of resistance that is an intricate part of the Black Church experience. In response to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” narrative, I argue the time is now to also “Make the Black Church Great Again!”

Critical thinking perspectives across contexts and curricula: Dominant, neglected, and complementing dimensions

Conceptions of critical thinking (CT) are influenced by cultural and sociopolitical factors that give rise to a variety of views of CT across contexts. Rethinking conceptions of CT according to context is thus important in order to design teaching models that respond to sociocultural particularities and needs as well as to global demands. Existing conceptualizations of CT include cognitive, metacognitive, emotional, attitudinal, ethical, and sociopolitical dimensions that have shaped various approaches adopted in the curriculum. The skills–dispositions perspective to CT is dominant across contexts, but emerging perspectives and approaches include less recognized dimensions, such as civic, ethical, and cultural ones. Neglecting these leads to negative consequences in the fight for social justice since a comprehensive view of CT entails ethical reasoning, social awareness, and a deep concern for the public good leading to action. A comprehensive, culturally sensitive model of CT should include, at least, intellectual skills, dispositions, and ethical and civic dimensions.

The DNA of social work as a human rights practice from a frontline social workers’ perspective in Flanders

ABSTRACT Societal and political developments in European welfare states challenge the core principles of social justice, human rights, collective responsibility and respect for diversity that underpin social work. At the same time, however, in many European countries, there is a revival of a more transformative social work discourse aimed at the fight for social justice and the realisation of human rights. Gaining insight into the implementation of this human rights approach in social work requires that it be studied in everyday practice, since rights are not rigid structures but social and political constructions. In Flanders a two-year research process was therefore set up with frontline social work practitioners to explore the common ground of diverse social work practices in realising a rights-based practice. Through a qualitative analysis of these frontline perspectives, complemented with input from diverse stakeholders, we identified five building blocks as the DNA of a strong social work focusing on the realisation of a rights approach: (1) politicising work, (2) proximity, (3) process logic, (4) generalist practice, and (5) working in a connecting way.

Social work and social justice: The relationship between fitness to practise and criminal convictions for non-violent activism

INTRODUCTION: Social work as a profession is underpinned by ideas of social justice and human rights, and that social workers have an ethical obligation to uphold these ideas. Social workers have a history of engagement in non-violent social justice activism (NVSJA), and a proud record of achieving social change in Aotearoa New Zealand. However, having a criminal conviction for engaging in NVSJA can be a barrier to social work registration in Aotearoa New Zealand.APPROACH: An exploration of current research around NVSJA and social work registration was conducted. Along with an examination of the Social Workers Registration Board’s (SWRB’s) Fit and Proper Person Policy Statement, with a consideration on the reporting of acts of NVSJA and social workers by the media.CONCLUSION: Those who engage in NVSJA are often likely to gain criminal convictions. This creates a potential barrier for social workers who go beyond the rhetoric and fight for social justice, in a macro and practical sense, from gaining registration. This has become additionally important since the Social Workers Registration Legislation Act (2019) passed and with registration becoming mandatory two years after the Act gained royal assent. There is a need for a change to the Fit and Proper Person Policy Statement so that the SWRB is better able to support social workers who are standing for what social work is all about, or at least, what social work is stated to be all about.

Black Pentecostal Hermeneutics?

Abstract This essay advances hermeneutical insights for emerging black pentecostal scholars to consider. The salient question is, “What distinguishes black Pentecostalism?” This study revisits James H. Cone’s sources for black theology for insight into the role of blackness in shaping black Pentecostalism. On the one hand, the study dispels the myth that black Pentecostalism is inherently a spiritual alternative to the fight for social justice. On the other hand, it calls for critical dialogue between Cone’s sources for black theology and black Pentecostalism to advance scholarship on the formation of black pentecostal hermeneutics. This essay explains that blackness is more than a cultural and experiential reality. Blackness is a theological source that correlates with other sources in shaping black Pentecostalism. Blackness, moreover, legitimates black pentecostal proclivities for the integration of the faith, spirituality, and social advocacy. Theological blackness in Pentecostalism has historically distinguished black Pentecostalism from subsequent white Pentecostalism.

Haunt or Home? Ethos and African American Literature

The African American rhetorical tradition could be described as a shelter in an alien environment or as a way station on a long journey. A focus on ethos suggests that such a narrow approach to African American literature cannot do justice to these literary texts: how these writers employ images and symbols, craft and deploy examine identities, blend, criticize, and create traditions, explore contemporary issues, and create community. Because of cultural and racist narratives, African Americans could not simply use either the pre-Socratic or Aristotelian approaches to ethos in their fight for social justice. This essay demonstrates how a postclassical approach to ethos that draws on Bourdieu’s concept of habitus and is focused on community-building and self-healing is central to the African American literature and rhetoric.