500 words
LING 472: Reflection on Justice
due Monday, January 31, 11:59 pm, Dropbox
For this short writing assignment (~450-500 words), you will have to reflect on the concept of SOCIAL JUSTICE. This is a deliberately open and free-form prompt. You are welcome to structure your reflection any way you like, but it must address BOTH of the following questions:
1. What does social justice mean to you? What does justice look like?
You can choose any angle you like on this question. You can write about what justice would look like in a particular case (e.g., Breonna Taylor, George Floyd), or for a particular issue (e.g., people subjected to direct/indirect linguistic discrimination). You may also write about issues of justice in your life, your family’s life, your community’s life, or you can avoid personal topics altogether. You can reflect on notions of justice in a community and/or culture that you are close with or are interested in participating in. You may also approach the issue from a legal system.
2. What role does language play in the vision of social justice you describe here?
Make sure you explicitly link the issues above to language, dialect, accent, ways of speaking, whether these are directly or indirectly related.
This is meant to be a preliminary reflection, so it’s okay if you still haven’t settled on a concrete definition or description of justice as of yet. We will come back to these reflections, and you will most likely build upon them in future assignments. Think of it is a “draft” or brainstorming opportunity for issues you would like to research on throughout the semester. My hope is that you will treat this assignment as an opportunity to be thoughtful about a concept that is frequently referenced in the USA, that you may have been personally affected by, and/or rarely considered in depth.
