I have a very dear friend, Caroline, who lives in South Carolina. We Zoom most Sundays. During our last call the issue of “social justice” came up. You see Caroline is chairing a committee on that topic…she is someone who volunteers for planning commissions, church committees, organizes reunions, you name it. I’m glad she does…I certainly don’t.
Defining Social Justice
She was explaining that her committee was stuck. They needed to write a mission statement and couldn’t agree on a simple definition. Perhaps like TraveLynn wrote in response to my post on the quality of life, social justice “may be hard to define, but you know it when you feel it.”
I used my Google machine to try to help her out, but wasn’t satisfied:
“Social justice is the view that everyone deserves equal economic, political and social rights and opportunities. — San Diego Foundation
“Social justice may be broadly understood as the fair and compassionate distribution of the fruits of economic growth.” — United Nations
While helpful they just didn’t seem to squarely hit the mark. Caroline needed something that made you instantly feel its meaning. It came to me in a flash:
Social justice is when everyone is treated like a rich, white male!
Similarities
There are many, many things I love about Portugal. My goodness, we must love it, we have decided to put down roots here … to live out our final years here. There are so many things here (food, the pace of life, public transportation, etc) that are welcome differences from the States. However, there is one thing that is disturbingly similar…how the justice system treats rich white males.
Unless you are Portuguese or live in Portugal, you likely don’t recognize the guy on the left above. His name is José Sócrates Carvalho Pinto de Sousa…or José Sócrates if you want to fit in on a campaign poster. He was the Prime Minister of Portugal from 2005 to 2011 … admittedly during a time of financial distress in Portugal. Anyway, Sócrates’ had been in the political sphere for years. He had been a member of Parliament since 1987. And like many politicians, he skated along the edge of “government ethics” without penalty.
José Sócrates was ousted by the Board of the Guarda Municipality in 1990 and 1991, after being warned several times because of poor quality of construction projects and lack of monitoring of the construction works. Sócrates was threatened with disciplinary action for wrongdoings in the technical direction of particular works of whose projects he was the author, but despite being ousted from this capacity, he was never penalized. In addition, as a Member of the Parliament, Sócrates was not allowed by law to work as a technical engineer between 1987 and 1991. —Sócrates assinou 21 projectos de casas quando era exclusivo na AR
Fast forward to today, Mr. Sócrates is hanging out at home (after spending 10 months in detention) awaiting trial. Most of the 31 charges first brought in 2014 were recently dismissed by a judge in part because they have expired under Portugal’s statute of limitation. (Portugal’s justice system is known to be a bit slow.) He still faces three counts of money laundering worth some 1.7 million euros and three others for faking documents related to service contracts and the purchase and renting of an apartment in Paris.
I asked my physical therapist yesterday if she thought anything would come of the trial. “No…nothing”, was her simple reply. I had wished she had provided a longer, more detailed response so that I could think about something other than the pain I was experiencing as she bent my elbow. But I digress…
My Point
You are wondering if I have a point. I do. (You really need to become more Portuguese and demonstrate just a bit more patience.)
I realize my definition is Euro-American-centric. Perhaps it should be “rich (insert predominant race) male”. But as the U.S. justice system demonstrated after the banking collapse of 2008-9, when no one was charged, and more recently as it relates to Donald Trump, justice is not blind. Perhaps that is why the Portuguese statue for justice (one of which is shown above on the right) is not wearing a blindfold.
You nailed it on what social justice is! Well done. Did Caroline use it in their mission statement?
Still working on the mission statement. Portugal has a justice system that is not working. You need to fund the justice department. It needs investigators, attorneys, prosecutors, judges and a community that demands that it work for everyone. It is apathy that allows all corrupt systems to exist. It is apathy that gave us an American justice system that rewards the rich, discriminates against the poor and the disenfranchised, has loaded up the prisons with non-violent black and brown offenders, and has outsourced the system to profit-making companies. It is apathy and ignorance that elects a con man and misogynist to the highest office of the land and honor him as a demigod. It is apathy that holds national elections where less than 50% of the eligible voters cast a ballot. And it is corruption that seeks to make voting even less accessible to an enlightened public. Still, our system struggles for equity. There is just a lot to correct and it won't happen in my lifetime.