Social Justice 3rd Quarter Final Assessment - Brent Peluso

What are the most important aspects to making a positive impact on Social Justice Issues?
Use specific examples and information to support your points that include issues, organizations,
movements, etc?

When examining the key aspects of a successful social justice organization or

movement, a few main focuses arise. The most important aspects to making a positive impact

on social justice are targeting a large audience from a variety of backgrounds, appealing to

viewers emotions, and presenting solutions.

Targeting a large, demographically diverse audience can prove to be beneficial in a

number of ways. For instance, when working to solve an issue that is focused on kids, the

obvious audience might present itself to be the children themselves. However, eliminating the

collaboration with adults altogether is likely to slow down the humanitarian efforts of the

organization. Instead, both children and adults from any race, ethnicity, or gender, should be

included in the effort in order to achieve maximum exposure. To give a specific example, we

can examine the Womens March, an effort to bring awareness to the inequity of women. While

the movement focused on the roles of women in society and their importance, a large number of

men were also in attendance, marching alongside their female comrades. In this march, as in

other gender equality movements, the inclusion of both genders in an effort to avoid the

alienation of any groups was an invaluable undertaking. Singer/songwriter Annie Lennox said

once, I dont think feminism is about the exclusion of men but their inclusion we must face

and address those issues, especially to include younger men and boys.

An appeal to the viewers emotions is undoubtedly an advantageous resource in a social

justice effort. Ultimately, social justice warriors seek to inform and to give others the will to make

their impact. This can be achieved largely by the appeal to morality of viewers of social justice

advertisements. An example of the appeal to morality and emotions is the effort of companies to
create positive community and environmental impacts, among other things, in an effort to build a

good name for their company. This endeavor of companies is called corporate social

responsibility. A large number of businesses have discovered the positive fiscal impact on their

business ventures as a result of consumers grateful responses to these social justice

undertakings. Coca-cola is among the many companies that works to promote their products

through environmentally beneficial acts, such as the use of clean energy and the reduction of

waste. Similarly, Ben and Jerrys makes donations to nonprofits to influence positive change in

local Vermont communities. While a corporation works to generate increased revenue and, in

turn, increased profit, corporate social responsibility is a fantastic example of the steadfast

support achievable through the appeal to peoples emotions.

Along with providing a will to make an impact, social justice advocates also work to

provide others with the resources to make this impact. In other words, proposing a specific

solution or course of action to individuals who wish to support a movement is a great way to

increase overall support and productivity of the movement. A model of this aspect of creating a

large social justice impact is Third Sector New England, a nonprofit that promotes the inclusion

initiative. The inclusion initiative gives small nonprofit organizations the resources to build

inclusive communities. Other simple, but impactful, ways that individuals can support

movements are attending peaceful protests and boycotting socially unjust corporations.

Across the many nonprofit organizations and social justice movements, a few aspects of

successful social impacts seem to recur. Targeting a large audience from various backgrounds,

appealing to viewers emotions, and presenting solutions are these crucial features and can lay

the foundation for positive social change. We must restore hope to young people, help the old,

be open to the future, spread love. Be poor among the poor. We need to include the excluded

and preach peace(Pope Francis).