Intro to Social Justice Key Terms

The 1619 Project

Author: Nikole Hannah-Jones (creator)

Significance: Reframes U.S. history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at its center, arguing that the nation's democratic ideals were truly achieved through their struggle.

La Facultad

Author: Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera

Significance: An "instant sensing" or acute awareness developed by those living in the borderlands. It is the capacity to see deeper realities or the "deep structure below the surface," gained as a survival strategy against oppression. 

Environmental Racism

Author: Robert D. Bullard, Dumping in Dixie

Significance: A form of institutionalized racism where minority and low-income communities disproportionately bear the burden of noxious facilities (waste dumps, factories), regardless of class, due to lack of political power.

The New Jim Code

Author: Ruha Benjamin, Race After Technology

Significance: A concept arguing that new technologies and algorithms, despite appearing neutral, reproduce and deepen existing racial and social biases, acting as a new form of systemic discrimination.

Dying of Whiteness

Author: Jonathan Metzl

Significance: Refers to the phenomenon where poor white Americans support political policies that actively harm their own health (e.g., opposing Obamacare, gun control) out of racial resentment, prioritizing their perceived place in a racial hierarchy.

Telos

Author: Aristotle (discussed in Sandel's Justice)

Significance: Greek for "end," "purpose," or "aim." In Aristotle's political theory, justice is defined by determining the proper telos of a thing or social practice, and distributing it based on the relevant virtues it is meant to honor.

Prosthetics

Author: Audre Lorde, The Cancer Journals

Significance: Lorde critiques the societal emphasis on cosmetic appearance (hiding mastectomy scars) as reinforcing the stereotype that women are only defined by how they look. She refuses to be reduced "from warrior to mere victim"

Skywoman

Author: Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

Significance: The ancestral gardener figure in the Indigenous Creation story who built the earth (Turtle Island) through a relationship of reciprocity and gratitude with the animals. It contrasts with the Christian Eve narrative of banishment and domination.

"Peaceful Violence"

Author: Frantz Fanon (discussed by Trask)

Significance: A concept of structural, intergenerational violence that "kills without a sound, without a passing notice". Trask applies it to Native Hawaiian subjugation through historical dispossession, illness, and economic captivity

Vernacular / Counter-language

Author: bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress

Significance: The local language/dialect. hooks argues that enslaved Africans remade the "oppressor's language" (English) into a "space of bonding" and a tool to create an "alternative cultural production" and a counter-hegemonic worldview.

"Cancer Alley"

Author: Sheryl Nance-Nash, "Black Communities Fight for Cleaner Air..."

Significance: An industrial stretch in Louisiana with high rates of cancer and other illnesses due to petrochemical plants. It is a prime example of environmental injustice and is central to the civil rights context of environmental struggles.

Structural Competency

Author: Paul Farmer, Infections and Inequalities (1999)iscussions

Significance: An approach calling for clinical trainees to understand and act on the systemic causes of health inequalities. It contrasts with "Cultural Competency" by examining social issues (zoning, poverty) rather than viewing health inequities purely through the lens of individual identity/culture.

Annette Jean

Author: Paul Farmer, Infections and Inequalities (1999)

Significance: The case study of a poor woman in Haiti whose death, in Farmer's view, "could and should have been averted". Her death is cited to protest that inequalities of outcome are "biological reflections of social fault lines"

"Evacuations are Admissions of Failure"

Author: John Biguenet, The Atlantic (2021)

Significance: A critique asserting that when mass evacuation becomes the primary response to hurricanes and wildfires, leaders admit they cannot protect their citizens from climate change threats. It challenges the US government's capability compared to other nations (like the Netherlands)

The "Five S's" of PIH

Author: Partners In Health (Organizational Approach)

Significance:The essential elements PIH believes a strong health system must have: Staff, Stuff, Space, Systems, and Social Support. This approach emphasizes a comprehensive model, including the essential resources needed for effective care (e.g., food, transportation).

Groundshifting

Author: Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera

Significance: A defiant political stance where the trauma of having one's land, culture, and identity taken is transformed. It uses the sense of displacement ("in-betweenness") as a strategy to create a "site of power and rebirth"

Non-refoulement

Author: Maeve Higgins, (Discussion of International Law)

Significance: A principle from the 1951 Refugee Convention that forbids a country from sending asylum seekers back to a place where they face persecution. Higgins discusses how the Preclearance process allows the U.S. to sidestep this rule by turning people away before they reach U.S. soil to claim asylum

Coolie Trade / Page Act (1875)

Author: Mae Ngai, (Discussion of Asian Exclusion)

Significance: The Page Act was directed at Chinese and other Asians and enforced a ban on the so-called "coolie trade" (even though most Chinese migrants came voluntarily). Crucially, it forced Asian women to prove they were not prostitutes, drastically cutting female immigration and perpetuating the image of the Asian woman as a "moral threat"

Social Welfare State

Author: Patricia Hill Collins & Sirma Bilge, Intersectionality

Significance: A post-WWII governmental philosophy that protects the interests of the public and aims for the common good. It is grounded in the belief that threats to public health and security (like unemployment, poverty, poor schools) should be addressed through government action.

Neoliberalism

Author: Patricia Hill Collins & Sirma Bilge, Intersectionality

Significance: A post-WWII governmental philosophy emphasizing the superiority of markets over governments. It advocates for the privatization of public institutions (schools, prisons, healthcare) and aims to scale back or eliminate the social welfare state, viewing safety nets as wasteful.

Hypervisibility & Invisibility

Author: Chase Strangio, "The Unbearable (In)Visibility of Being Trans"

Significance: Strangio's experience as a trans lawyer who is simultaneously hypervisible (scrutinized/judged in public spaces) and invisible (disrespected, misgendered). This paradox exposes how the justice system treats him professionally (male-presenting in court) while the public erases his identity.

Reproductive Coercion

An abuser's attempt to control their partner's reproductive health and autonomy. This includes forcing sex, trying to get a partner pregnant against their will, or refusing to use a condom. It links to the thematic question of who deserves bodily self-determination