What Does Justice Actually Mean?

The American people have this to learn: that where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob, and degrade them, neither person nor property is safe.

Frederick Douglass

We know we talk a lot about justice- and education- so let’s take a 2022 refresh on what “Justice” actually means:

1a : having a basis in or conforming to fact or reason : reasonable had just reason to believe he was in danger. b : conforming to a standard of correctness : proper just proportions. c archaic : faithful to an original. 2a(1) : acting or being in conformity with what is morally upright or good : righteous a just war.

(from merriam-webster)

The word justice comes from the Latin word “jus”, which means right or law. Justice is often used interchangeably with the word “fairness.” Many philosophers, sociologists, theologians, and other scientists define justice as the proper ordering of people and things.

All cultures and religions include a definition of justice in their codes of law and conduct.

Justice is, possibly, the glue that holds societies together. Justice includes the notion of upholding the law, as in the work of police, judges and the court.

But like all things, justice can be mis-used or defined with bias or quite abstract… an African proverb states that “Corn can’t expect justice from a court composed of chickens.”

So it is work to come back to re-defining what justice is and how it might be applicable to all of us, or at least inclusive of the most oppressed and vulnerable populations.

That for us, is the current standard of justice- when all children have access to safety and the same quality education, when all neighborhoods have access to heat, air, water and protection. When all voices and votes are heard and respected. That is what we mean by “Dallas Justice Now.”