Explaining the Depth of Social Injustice - Walsh Kern

This book attempts to do a lot in a limited number of pages. For the most part, in my view, Taiwo has been very successful. Perhaps the most profound addition to my education thus far has been his explanation of the depth of social injustice and how much needs to be done to overcome these pervasive injustices. I want to point to some of the ways that Taiwo says society needs to change to be more just.

The first really important distinction that Taiwo makes is between strategies that focus on the distribution of resources and those that focus on capabilities. Taiwo writes that "The capabilities approach has the benefit not only of focusing more sharply on the actual outcomes we want than do resourcist approaches, but also of helping us to more effectively deconstruct the interactions of the complex factors that feed into those outcomes" (88). Instead of focusing on if resources are available, one must focus on whether or not these resources are actually able to be used in real life. This focuses more on outcomes and this is very important for people with disabilities. As Taiwo explains, a disability should not be viewed as a "natural" disadvantage, but actually a disability "lies in an interaction between individual and structural factors". The example of people with uncorrected vision in countries in the Global South such as Uganda, where poor vision often goes uncorrected, really helps to understand how disabilities are only understood based on the social context and that disabilities are really social limitations. To understand how to make a more just society, we must understand how physical differences between people "relate to people's capabilities in life" (93). I find this to be very profound and important for understanding what a just world needs to accomplish.

I also really liked the part of Chapter 3 where Taiwo discusses the ways in which socialization and manners are important to building a just society. One cannot only look at legal codes to understand discrimination. One must look at how "trust, attention, and respect are distributed" (96). I agree with Taiwo that understand this is very important. To change social structures, Taiwo proposes that "we should pay attention to which children are rebuked for which behaviorism and change those patterns where they reveal an unjust difference in the social grammar that applies to one child versus another" (98). This is obviously a very difficult problem to fix, and I think this is perhaps the weakest suggestion for justice that Taiwo makes. Are there any better ways that you can think of to fix this complex problem of socialization and manners?

In general, I though that these chapters did a good job of adding to his explanation of how deeply injustice runs and how there is so much that needs to be done to fix this. One thing that I wanted to highlight was his description of the shortcomings of constructive view. He calls this challenge "changing subjects". I honestly don't really understand what is significant about this challenge.