by Llewellyn J. Cornelius, PhD, LCSW
With the democratization of social media on the web, we’re seeing each efforts to create social justice area on-line and pushback in opposition to these social justice allies. Phrases representing this pushback embrace “weaponizing social justice” and “social injustice.” On this counterattack on social justice, influencers and energy brokers are manipulating the which means of phrases that advocates and allies are utilizing to advertise social justice, fairness, and equity. They’re additionally partaking in emotional, verbal, and bodily assaults to cease or deter the actions of social justice and fairness allies. These are merely new methods of partaking within the huge array of ways of oppressing those who was analyzed intimately by Paulo Friere (2000) in his traditional work The Pedagogy of the Oppressed. This essay summarizes a few of these weaponizing ways and provides options for countering them.
Weaponizing Ways
One of many methods during which influencers/energy brokers have engaged in weaponizing social justice is by taking a time period that initially meant within the Nineteen Sixties “to be awake (wokeness)” to the which means of social oppression in communities and utilizing the identical phrase “wokeness” to get folks to argue with and battle in opposition to each other (Zavattarro, 2022). This occurred by utilizing peaceable social protests in opposition to the horrors of homicides in opposition to African Individuals, like George Floyd, to denigrate peaceable social protesters by calling them “thugs” (Kalich & Entin, 2021).
A second means during which influencers/energy brokers have used weaponizing ways to oppress others is by partaking in what DaCosta, Lee, and Her (2021) name “linguistics racism” as a way to invoke hatred and violence in opposition to a category of individuals. Such a racism occurred throughout the COVID-19 pandemic when politicians claimed that Asians have been spreaders of the “China” or “Wuhan” [COVID-19] virus (p.102). These incendiary statements led to verbal, emotional, and bodily assaults in opposition to Asians.
A 3rd instance of how influencers/energy brokers have used weaponizing ways to hinder social justice allyship is by way of taking “benefit of the anonymity of social media and free speech to unleash vitriol in opposition to people” (Smith, James, & Griffith, 2020). On this case, the proprietor of a extensively standard plant-based female care product line, “the Subsequent Black Lady,” acquired extraordinarily detrimental evaluations for posting a 15-second business fostering African American entrepreneurship (Grant, 2020).
A number of themes underlie all these weaponizing ways.
- The manipulation of the ideas or actions of others by way of the usage of micro-assault ways. Such a micro assault happens by way of the usage of “information” out of context or emotionally laden language to inflame folks. On the micro degree, particular person influencers distort publicly out there info to invoke anger in opposition to or worry of an individual. On the macro degree, anonymously funded Political Motion Teams (PACs) flood social media shops with visible, verbal, or written assaults, all whereas hiding the identities of the transgressors.
- Elected officers use the policy-making course of to restrict social democracy or penalize people who try to carry them accountable. An instance of limiting social democracy can be proscribing how folks vote and making voting inconvenient or troublesome. An instance of penalizing whistleblowers can be to impose a nice on individuals who try to make use of the Freedom of Info Act to doc transgressions by elected officers.
Countering Weaponization Ways by way of Restorative Social Justice
We are able to finest restrict these weaponizing social justice ways by partaking in restorative justice practices. One of many methods we are able to restore justice right here is by way of creating courageous areas to permit for fostering respectful troublesome/contentious conversations. Greater than 20 years in the past, the Public Conversations Venture developed a mannequin based mostly on household remedy rules to create such courageous areas (see https://tinyurl.com/ycksavy3).
A second means we are able to restore justice right here is by naming and calling out oppression, on this case, by continuously monitoring inequities, fostering particular person and group empowerment, and interesting in affirmative coverage motion. These approaches have been famous by the World Well being Group (WHO) of their WHO Social Determinants of Well being (SDH) Mannequin (Photo voltaic & Irwin, 2010) as crucial to the promotion of well-being. We are able to additionally restore justice on this method by way of tapping into the weather of the NASW Code of Ethics that concentrate on our being energetic brokers in counter discrimination (Section 4.02).
A 3rd means we are able to restore justice is by way of pushing in opposition to anonymity and pushing for transparency within the methods we talk electronically. Along with the above, we have to improve our sensitivity to the methods during which folks can conceal their identities by way of e-mail and social media. This lack of transparency may even happen after we select to not present our faces on video convention calls. This lack of transparency may also happen extra intentionally by businesses and corporations utilizing computerized communication software program (“bots”) as an alternative to reside encounters.
We are able to lastly restore justice right here by preventing in opposition to taking part within the Range Olympics. The Range Olympics happens when one group acts as if its type of variety must be extra privileged than another person’s sort of variety.
In the long run, this can be a reminder that we should always counter weaponizing social justice ways by way of fostering community-driven collective empowerment and liberation efforts concentrating on under-resourced populations and being cautious to not push our agendas on the expense of those under-resourced communities.
References
De Costa, P. I., Her, L. & Lee, V. (2022). Weaponizing and de-weaponizing antiracist discourse. Some issues for language educators to think about. International Journal of Literacy, Culture, and Language Education, 2, 98-107. https://doi.org/10.14434/ijlcle.v2iMay.34380
Freire, P. ( 2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Continuum.
Grant, J. (2020). Unique: Honey pot founder Beatrice Dixon responds to racist backlash from Goal business. Essence. https://www.essence.com/feature/honey-pot-founder-beatrice-dixon-responds-racist-backlash-target-commercial-black-history-month/
Kalich, S., & Entin, B. (2021). One 12 months later: The aftermath of George Floyd’s loss of life. New Nation Now. https://www.newsnationnow.com/race-in-america/timeline-one-year-since-george-floyd-death/
Smith, D. C., James, C. D., & Griffith, M. A. (2021). Co-brand partnerships making area for the subsequent black lady: Backlash in social justice branding. Psychology & Advertising and marketing. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21566
Photo voltaic, O., & Irwin, A. (2010). A conceptual framework for motion on the social determinants of well being. Social Determinants of Well being Dialogue Paper 2. Determine B. Framework for tackling SDH inequities. https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/44489/9789241500852_eng.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Zavattaro, S. M. (2022). How “woke” turned weaponized within the tradition wars. USApp – American Politics and Coverage Weblog (28 Mar 2022). Weblog Entry. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/2022/03/28/how-woke-became-weaponized-in-the-culture-wars/
Dr. Llewellyn J. Cornelius is the Donald Lee Hollowell Distinguished Professor of Social Justice and Civil Rights Research and Director, Heart for Social Justice, Human, and Civil Rights on the College of Georgia.
