What is Social Injustice? Why is it important for our classrooms?

Source: 

Washington, Ahmad R. "Addressing Social Injustice with Urban African American Young Men through Hip-Hop: Suggestions for School Counselors." Journal for Social Action in Counseling & Psychology, vol. 7, no. 1, Summer2015, pp. 101-121. EBSCOhost, ezproxy.library.ewu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=113858534&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Key Summary from the Text:
 "...funding disparities, the mass closing of urban schools, school re-segregation, and the school-to-prison pipeline - all issues that disproportionately impact students of color in very profound ways - represent legitimate civil rights and social justice violations because of the immediate and long-term social and economic ramifications they have on urban students, their families and communities."

My Thoughts:

This article discusses how school counselors can integrate hip-hop into productive conversations with urban African American students. I am personally a big fan of hip-hop, so I like to find meaningful uses for it by educators. While the article is centered around hip-hop utilization by school counselors, the information still applies directly to our own classrooms as teachers. Washington states that it is up to those within the actual school population to intervene in the inequality handed out by government officials.

Washington discusses the long history of social injustice against the POC population. Cuts to funding and limited educational opportunities take away students' power. By involving them in productive conversations about how laws, funding, and government entities run, POC students are empowered to rise above circumstances Hip-hop comes into play, because it has a history of addressing egregious social injustices against POC.  It is said to be a safe space for people to express ideas against the status quo and for listeners to gain insight into these ideas. A recent example of this was Eminem's freestyle against Donald Trump. Agree with him or not, he got his message across and addressed recent issues regarding Trump's behavior with the NFL, Puerto Rico and North Korea. By drawing parallels between literature, social injustices, and hip-hop an educator can connect to urban POC students on a more personal level. They can share that social injustices are not going unnoticed, but there has to be more action taken to correct these wrongs. While the solutions to wage gaps, discrimination and racism are not glaringly obvious, it is part of an educators job to empower their students to use their voice to call for changes.

Essentially, connecting to our students on a personal level can turn the wheels of revolution and create the future we want for every student that comes into our lives.