The College Fix

Ask 100 people to define social justice, and you’ll get 100 different answers.

Yet this vague expression that means various things to various people has been unfurled at campuses across America as the banner under which social-progressive causes are successfully funded and pushed.

Take the Center for Social Justice at the University of Oklahoma, an initiative of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program. One of the center’s biggest projects right now is to push for “reproductive rights” in a “red state.” In other words, their definition of social justice is to make it easier for women to abort unborn children in a Republican-dominated region.

At Brandeis University, their idea of social justice is “racial justice,” and it sent a team of students to the Deep South to unearth more examples of racism from America’s past.

Rutgers University links social justice with gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer rights through its Center for Social Justice Education and LGBT Communities. Its main project is to train members how to defend the rights of homosexuals.

Social justice is also combined with judicial activism, as the University of Cincinnati’s school of law teaches students how to defend perceived injustices against feminism, gender, race and income in the courts.

At San Diego State University, Students for Justice in Palestine have labeled their effort to stop the campus from doing business with Israeli companies a “social justice” campaign.

When the Catholic Loyola University Chicago passed a resolution titled “The Undocumented Student Act” that called for administrators to “support the presence and integration of” and provide financial aid and scholarships to students in the country illegally – it was done so under the banner of social justice.

Diversity, feminism, gay rights, Palestinian angst, differences in income, immigration reform – any left-leaning fan favorite that needs more “empowerment” through “social change agents” is what social justice amounts to at college campuses today.

Loyola this month released a video montage of students defining social justice in their own way, a video which purports to suggest that social justice is ultimately “love.” In reality, social justice pushes a liberal agenda on campuses under the guise of “love.” 

Jennifer Kabbany is editor of The College Fix ( Follow Jenn on Twitter @JenniferKabbany )

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