Social justice - (n) is the equal enforcement and protection of laws in a society without prejudice, regardless of race, gender, religion, or wealth.
Although the world in general has made much progress in this area within the past half-century, social injustice is still evident in many societies today. Even in America, where we pride ourselves in fairness, freedom, and justice, this egalitarian ideal has yet to be reached. In 1955, an African American boy was brutally murdered in Money, Mississippi, for supposedly flirting with a twenty-one year old white woman. The boy's name was Emmett Till, and he was just 14 years old, simply visiting his relatives at the time. The two murderers, Roy Bryant and his half-brother, J. W. Milam, kidnapped, beat, and shot Emmett before dumping his body into the river. Yet they were acquitted by the all-white jury and later even boasted about the murder in a Look magazine interview. In May 2004, the Department of Justice condemned the verdict a "grotesque miscarriage of justice."
Even more recently, in December 2006, another social injustice arose in what was known as the Jena Six. A group of six black teenagers, Robert Bailey (age 17), Mychal Bell (16), Carwin Jones (18), Bryant Purvis (17), Theo Shaw (17), and Jesse Ray Beard (14), were convicted of assaulting Justin Barker, a white student at Jena High School in Louisiana. Although only one of them could be legally tried as 18 years of age, five of them were at first charged as severely as an adult. Many civil rights advocates protested against the court, condemning the punishments as un-proportionate. Moreover, in the background of the confrontation was accumulating racial tension and conflict, beginning in August 2006. During a back-to-school assembly at the high school, an African American student asked the assistant principal whether he and his friends could sit under a school tree, which had been largely known as the "White Tree," a gathering spot for white students. The principal said yes, of course. However, the next morning, several rope nooses were found hanging from the tree -- highly offensive and considered as racial intimidation by many, especially in a town where 85% of the population is white with a strong history of racial conflict. Subsequent fighting broke out in the following months. As a result, the Jena Six case raised the question of how much race plays a part in the American justice system of the South.
References
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmjustice5.html
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/national/usstatesterritoriesandpossessions/louisiana/jena/index.html
Interesting and current event that still pertains to racism in the South of the USA. It appears that no matter how far we go, there is still racism present in our society. You make an excellent point that America prides itself with equality and freedom for all and yet we are far from it. I agree that it has gotten better in ways, though it remains ingrained in some people's way of life, primarily those from the South.
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