Social Justice at Loyola

By Janelle Jones
Gannon Scholar

It’s 10 o’clock at night and there are six women in my tiny kitchen. Food scraps are flying; we have more vegetables than counter space. Three oversized soup pots are boiling with broth and oddly there is a sense of organized chaos…

By Jackie Arnason
Graduate Student with
Institute of Pastoral Studies &
Graduate Assistant for
Alternative Break Immersions

As a society we have a tendency to judge before interaction. We make snap judgments of who to sit next to on the CTA, who to talk to at a bar, and even who to avoid based solely on outer appearance. Like Mrs. Turpin, whose character in Flannery O’Connor’s “Revelation” is so judgmental of other patients in the doctor’s office that a book is thrown at her head, many in our culture sit in judgment of others. This is a position of power. In focusing in on race, judgments about race create great drifts in cultures and often cause conflict and heartache. Iris Marion Young explains in Justice and the Politics of Difference, “The experience of racial oppression entails in part existing as a group defined as having ugly bodies, and…

By Grace Mikus
Gannon Scholar
Class of 2016

As I walk from class to class, building to building, I realize how unique Loyola is. I walk along the lake shore and see that others have the same idea that I do: to center one after a stressful test, or a paper that had been weighing on your mind for weeks. We are constantly introduced to new experiences every day, every hour. I have met people with different values, beliefs, experiences, and ethnicities that I never would have encountered if I had not gone to Loyola. That’s not even the most fascinating part: the greatest thing is how welcomed into the community all these unique types of people are warmly welcomed into a city that can sometimes be so cold. I find that social justice is having many diverse groups be treated equally, without prejudice, and to not be afraid to stand up and share their values and beliefs to the world.

By Matt Razek
Class of 2013

“Mommy, can I try some of those chocolate people?” A mere two to three years old and having no sense of what he just said. His parents laughing in the background though you could tell, from a distance, that they did not know how to address their son’s inquiry other than “laugh it off.” Though this white child had no idea of the ignorance of his statement, he may very well have been me…

By Hannah Green – Class of 2013

We are living in a country where 46.2 million people are currently living in poverty. In the United States, 8.3% of the workforce is currently unemployed. For FY2012-2013, Illinois social services will receive $350 million in budget cuts; this will equal a loss of 400 jobs, $485.5 million from the Illinois economy, as well as…