Example 3: Transformative Justice

Are you doing your part?

For my third example, here is material that introduces a video on Transformative Justice. There is a related video that explains how white supremacy is structurally built into the United States and that it is not interrogated (challenged) but is an unconscious bias that white people have. This gives them privilege and has led to economic and political inequalities that must be changed through Transformative Justice.

What is Transformative Justice? To address harms from the past, we need to redistribute social, political, economic, and cultural resources and shift structural conditions overall. The dominant identity structures power relations, often hidden, in society.

By focusing on “hidden” and “power,” they try to avoid any debate. This is because 1) you cannot offer counter-evidence, the dominant identity is hidden, and 2) it reduces human interactions and the power to "power relations." There is no consideration of how true beliefs, false beliefs, healthy values, unhealthy values, and free choices affect human life and relationships. It is all power and the distribution of resources.

This is where the material asks my favorite question: "As you progress beyond this training, ask yourself: “How can I ensure that, as staff at ASU, I am doing my part to promote DEIB"." Not only must you believe the DEIB philosophy, you must put it into action in your work.

I'll need to say this in every post: a person is free to believe this philosophy. It is also true that a person is free not to believe this philosophy. A state university should not present it as the truth of the matter. Alternatives should also be presented. And a state university should not require this material as a condition of employment.