Description
Book SynopsisSocial justice has become a buzzword to suggest we are serious about racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism, and ableism. But justice remains elusive and contested. It is written in founding documents, street soldiers declare it: ''no justice, no peace!'', but is absent from public interactions. Building on Cornel West's notion of race matters' and the Black Lives Matter movement,
Justice Matters strips away the rhetoric that keeps us from understanding what justice is, particularly in education, but also in relation to health, race, economy, and environment.Ladson-Billings interrogates the meaning of justice, looking at Western notions of justice from Aristotle to Kant to Rorty, alongside Eastern notions of Justice, from Lao Tzu, to Rumi to Frantz Fanon and W.E.B. Dubois. She shows how the pandemic has exposed deep injustices in society, and how schooling and the curriculum are largely blind to the race, White supremacy, and the racial trauma that plagues marginalized people. S
Trade ReviewInsightful and timely. Ladson-Billings challenges us to think again about concepts like ‘social justice’ that have become buzz words while robustly interrogating own understandings of what justice means. At last a book that explores the concept of justice from a global perspective, drawing from thinkers from the East and West. For me, this is a basic reader for those involved in educating for justice and against discrimination and should be read by every teacher, university/college lecturer engaged in teacher preparation and those who shape and design curricular frameworks. -- Rowena Arshad CBE, Professor Emerita, University of Edinburgh, UK
Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Saving the Language of Justice (Or the Meaning of the Word 'Justice') 2. Saving Justice During the Pandemic (Or How to Recognize Fundamental Injustice in Society) 3. Saving Justice in Curriculum (Or What We Teach) 4. Saving Justice in Instruction (Or How We Teach) 5. Saving Justice in Discipline (Or How We Dismantle the Carceral State) 6. Saving Justice In Popular Culture (Or How Hip Hop Can Rescue Justice) 7. Saving Justice In Social Activism (Or How it Has to be More Than a Hashtag) Conclusion: The Future of a Society that Fails to Save Justice References Index
