On “Injustice” (691 words)

Childhood is a fragile time for any individual. It goes without saying that the first years of an individual’s time on Earth can, and often do, lay the groundwork for the rest of that person’s life. That being said, most agree that it is incumbent of the adults in present in a child’s life to act as good examples of how to behave; more specifically, how to behave fairly.

“Justice” is a broad idea with an even broader set of definitions. Ask a hundred people how they define justice and you’ll likely receive an equal number of answers. These answers though, would likely be based in a common idea though, that idea being fairness.

The opposite of something which is fair is something which is unfair. Since fairness tends to act as the status quo and therefore goes largely unnoticed, let us attempt to understand it through it’s opposite: unfairness.

Even today, I’ve always gotten very lucky with the teachers I’ve been given. High school, college, and most of elementary all provided me with good instructors. The reason I say “most of elementary” is because the exception to this occurred in the third grade.

I was a good student as a kid. As good as a typical third grader could be at least. I did my work, read my books and went to recess. I guess my teacher didn’t see it the same way though. Regularly she would go out of her way to make my time at school as poor as it could be. She would withhold me from activities like the spelling bee, single me out in the middle of class, and on at least a couple of occasions, speak negatively about me, one time telling my mom that she “had the weird kid in class.”

I think the reason she used to behave in this manner towards me was because she couldn’t get under my skin. I never cried over it, I never complained, I took it as it came. I don’t have any hard feelings about the my experience in third grade. I acknowledge that there was likely some external force causing my teacher to act the way she did and can only hope that things took a turn for the better for her.

What happened to me was, by most standards, a series of injustices. Why though? What characteristics of the situation qualify it to be considered an unjust scenario?

Most notable about the situation is the disparity of authority, or the disparity of ability. My teacher had all the authority in the world to do things like not allow me to go to recesses or not participate in school events. What was I going to do in response? Say no? Tell the principal? Somehow I feel like if it had been my word against my teachers, they would have taken hers. The only equalizer I did have that I eventually did turn to was my mom. My mom, like myself, was passive about it for the majority of the school year until she had finally had enough toward the end of the year and wrote a “strongly worded” e-mail to my teacher. All this being said, it can be concluded that injustice involves a disparity of power between the performer and the receiver.

Less notable but still important in the broader scope of the situation are the consequences of an unjust action. On my end, the consequences were few and far between to be fair, but the whole situation did leave my young self with a a fear of receiving a bad teacher ever again. I was lucky enough to not have the incident affect me academically, but I’ll spend the rest of my life wondering if I would have won that spelling bee.

1. Injustice involves a relationship between an authority-holding performer and a less powerful recipient.
2. An act of injustice results in a short or long-term outcome considered negative or unfair by the recipient

C: Injustice is a treatment between an often authority-holding performer and a less powerful recipient which results in a short or long-term outcome considered negative or unfair by the recipient.