The main reason I started writing this blog last May was to grapple with this trendy word "justice." And quite often, I really still don't know what justice actually is. But I am learning more and more what justice is not.
One thing I know for sure is that justice is for all who need it. Conversely, I know that justice is not justice if it is only given to a few.
This incomplete version of justice has appeared repeatedly throughout history, when we have formed groups that are meant to focus on justice for certain groups of people, and only those groups. By doing so, we leave out many other groups.
When we fight for justice for a certain group of people and talk solely about the form of oppression that group faces as a whole, we ignore other forms of oppression that also work against that group just because they do not work against every person in that group.
This has happened in black liberation movements that--by solely focusing on anti-blackness and not also working against sexism--have been lead by black men and leave out the voices of black women.
This has happened in disability rights movements that--by solely focusing on ableism and not also working against racism--have been lead by white people with disabilities and leave out the voices of people of color with disabilities.
This has happened in feminist movements that--by solely focusing on sexism and not also working against racism--have been lead by white women and leave out the voices of women of color.
These are only three examples. There are numerous forms of oppression, numerous causes, and numerous people who are left out.
The exclusivity of all of these movements only work towards a partial picture of justice not because they exclude people who are white, able-bodied, or male. Insisting that these movements include those who benefit from the oppression they are fighting against doesn't make the justice that flows from the movements more all-encompassing, but less. When we respond to claims to justice for the downtrodden by claiming justice for those on top, we do not expand justice. We stifle it. Justice doesn't need to remember those who have always been present in our collective consciousness. Justice needs to remember those who have been absent. Jesus proclaims "good news to the poor," not to the powerful.
In the case of #BlackLivesMatter, a just response is not to see its exclusivity and say that #AllLivesMatter. A just response to the real exclusivity of the movement has been the hashtag #SayHerName, which brings attention to instances of police brutality against black women in a campaign that has largely focused on violence against black men.
This hashtag addresses intersectionality, the truth that we all hold multiple identities and group memberships, some of which may give us access to privilege while others hit us with oppression. As Audre Lorde famously put it, "There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives." We are whole people, and any movement that ignores the multiple forms of oppression faced by individuals leaves them out entirely.
This does not go against the need to specifically name and work against different forms of oppression. To make justice a reality, we must have some level of focus. But this is, of course, why we must always work within community. We may be called to specifically called to work towards justice here, and others there. We are one body with many parts, and each of us has a unique role to play.
But we can never say that we don't need any other part of the body, no matter how weak it appears. "On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor...But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it." (1 Corinthians 12:21-23a, 24b-26)
Even if our focus is on one form of oppression, we must always let ourselves be shaped by the other members of this body, particularly those parts we have too often viewed as "less honorable." We cannot let the perceived weakness of certain parts of this body be an excuse to ignore them, because the things we call weak that are truly indispensable. Power is not made perfect in the strong things of this world, but in weakness.
How we respond to our brothers and sisters facing intersectional oppressions will vary. Maybe we are in a place where we can truly act, or maybe we are in a place where the justice work we are already doing is the most we can manage. But at the very least we must suffer with them, honor them, listen to them. Justice is for all who need it, so we must always look for those who are left out and forgotten. Only then will justice really come forward.
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