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What type of injustices have happened throughout history?

Silvette Marie Barbosa Malavé

Doulos Discovery School

ELA 12

Ms. Esau

December 12, 2022

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There have been many injustices throughout history. Here we will talk about some of

those injustices which are discriminations like racism and sexism, having education for only

boys but not girls and there are also dictatorships and abuse of power. We can see these in

various documents and texts written by people who saw or experienced these injustices. These

injustices include violating human rights and also hurting people mentally and physically.

Discrimination: racism and sexism

First, we will see discrimination such as racism and sexism that are an injustice on

history. On the Letter from Birmingham jail, we can see a race discrimination. On par. 3 Martin

says: “I am in Birmingham because injustice is here”. Martin knew to recognize that racism was

happening, he even mentioned how people that should make us feel protected were doing the

total opposite to the black people; in para. 42 he says “Maybe Mr. Conor and his policemen have

been rather publicly nonviolent, as Chief Pritchett was in Albany, Georgia, but they have used

the moral means of nonviolence to maintain the immoral end of flagrant racial injustice”. The

policemen were being two faced and treating them horrible when no one was looking, just for

their skin color. Martin would have wish for them to have “commended the Negro sit-inners and

demonstrators of Birmingham for their sublime courageous” (pa. 43), instead of the policemen,

who got great recognition for their work, when they were actually sponsoring racism among

white and black. The main problem here was that the white were acting as if they were nice to

black, but really they were not, and the African Americans that were fitting for this were not

receiving any recognition or consideration. We also see an example of racism when Martin

noticed how not even the church, who should be the example, was being just. King states that he

is disappointed with the church, for they choose to not get involved in this social issue. He also

makes use of his own witness to explain. He was born and raised in a church, so he knows what
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things go around. He states the church calls this injustice “a social issue with which the gospel

has no real concern.” (Par. 32) Martin asserts he has “watched white churches stand on the

sidelines and merely mouth pious irrelevances and sanctimonious trivialities” (Par. 32). This is

considered unjust because it is sad how the church is helping a racism problem go away, they

stay quiet.

In the article Malala Yousafzai wrote, “Address UN Youth”, we see discrimination by

sexism. Growing up, Malala lost her right to study, but she kept fighting for it. On her society,

there was discrimination towards women. Only boys could educate themselves, but Malala knew

this was unjust and wrong. She called the rest of the girls to fight for their rights as this issue was

just towards girls, here is the quote: “We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back. We

call upon our sisters around the world to be brave — to embrace the strength within themselves

and realize their full potential” (par. 15). She knew that since this was against girls for their

sexism, they were the ones who could help her the most, so she called them to fight. We also see

the witness of a boy in school that has the right of education, yet believes that girls should have

this right too, he knows that this discrimination is unjust. Malala says: “I remember that there

was a boy in our school who was asked by a journalist, “Why are the Taliban against education?”

He answered very simply. By pointing to his book, he said, “A Talib doesn't know what is

written inside this book. They think that God is a tiny, little conservative being who would send

girls to hell just because of going to school” (par. 11). Here we can also see how beliefs can

cause discrimination; for, the wrong belief in thinking it is wrong for girls to study is what's

causing girls to lose their right of education, showing sexism. This culture has a sexist point of

view of only letting boys study and not girls because girls belong in other non-educated areas of

society.
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Education rights

Another injustice in History is claiming education is only for boys and not girls. A big

debate that goes around. Malala’s number one fight was this one. It was mentioned on the

previous claim how the sexist discriminations cause this problem with the right for girls to study,

but here we are no talking about the discrimination behind it but only about the fact that

education rights are being violated. For example, in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

it is said that everyone has the right to education, yet this has been broken. These are the sections

that talk about this right:

- Article 26, section 1a: “Everyone has the right to education.” This means that any

gender, any race, any age, is allowed and has a right to receive education, and

grow as a person. This has been violated for the Taliban are prohibiting a gender,

the female one, to study.

- Article 26, section 1b: “Technical and professional education shall be made

generally available, and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the

basis of merit.” This one talks about education being accessible; which has been

violated too, because the Taliban make it impossible for those girls who do try to

get education, to access it.

Now we will see this violation proofed by Malala’s article “Address UN Youth”. On para.

4 she says that “there are hundreds of human rights activists and social workers who are not only

speaking for human rights, but who are struggling to achieve their goals of education, peace, and

equality.” This is saying that even the people fighting for this cause, struggled with the right of

education themselves. This is witness proof that it is not just Malala that struggled with her

education, but there are lots of others going through the same fight. Adding to this, not being
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able to receive education is unjust. We know this has been, and it is an issue in history because

Malala talks to the schools saying they will fight, and they cannot be stopped. In par. 16 she says,

“Dear brothers and sisters, we want schools and education for every child's bright future. We will

continue our journey to our destination of peace and education for everyone. No one can stop

us.” This is her fighting for education rights.

Dictatorships

A third injustice in history are the many dictatorships and abuse of power that have

happened. In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we can read the rights corresponding

to these injustices.

- Article 1: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” This

right has been violated through dictatorship. When someone abuses with their

power to obligate people, they ignore the right of a person's freedom to choose for

themselves.

- Article 4: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading

treatment or punishment.” Trujillo was an example of a dictator who practiced

torture, violating this right.

Now we will see the example of this dictatorship and these rights being broken in Julia

Alvarez’s essay called “A Genetic of Justice”. This article talks about the dictatorship of Trujillo.

Just that fact that is a dictatorship and not a democracy, violates the first article mentioned.

Trujillo's actions hurt people mentally and emotionally, like for example Julia's family, especially

her mom. In the text, she explains how her mom would act towards hard situations. Her first

instinct was to stay quiet and not approach the problem, to a point that when Julia grew up and

wanted to share the story, her mom prohibited it and did not agree. Álvarez tells that when her
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mom found out that her second novel was going to be about the dictatorship, she tried stopping

her by warning her about the dangers that could bring, “This time, my mother warned, I was not

just going to anger family members, but I would be directly responsible for their lives” (para. 28)

here we can see that the mental dictatorship her mom was living made her believe that even after

Trujillo's’ death, talking about him would cause the death of their families. This is how much she

was affected by Trujillo: like Álvarez said, “my parents were still living a dictatorship in their

own heads”. This fear that caused silence also came from physical torture, breaking the second

article mentioned, “No one shall be subjected to torture”. In the text it doesn’t describe much

what type of torture he practices, but we do know that he practice some type because the SIM’s

torture center is mentioned. We also know that Julia’s mom knew about this because her answer

to any “inappropriate” questions about Trujillo or the dictatorship was one written at the entrance

of this center. This is the quote that mentions both facts: “To our many questions about what was

going on, my mother always had the ready answer “En boca cerrada no entran moscas”, No lies

fly into closed mouths. Later, I found out that this very saying was scratched on the lintel, SIM’s

torture center at La Cuarenta.” La Cuarenta was the place the center was located in.

In conclusion, throughout history we have seen discrimination, violation of rights, abuse

of power, racism, and more. In the first point we can see discrimination because The Clergymen

in Birmingham were being racist to the African-American. We can also see discrimination when

they only allowed boys to a certain thing and not girls. On the next point, it is evident that the

rights of education have been violated, by only allowing them to girls and not boys, and we can

see specifically what rights have been broken. On the last claim it can be seen dictatorships and

how they have affected people and what rights a dictatorship breaks. All this has been different

types of injustice throughout history.

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Bibliography:

1. Alvarez. (2000). A genetic of justice. alyve.org. Recuperate 12 de December de 2022, de

https://www.alyve.org/english/docs/10.2/A_Genetics_of_Justice-Alvarez.pdf

2. Alvarez. (2013, 12 July). Malala Yousafzai: Address to the United Nations youth

assembly. Recuperate 9 de December de 2022, de

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1plsgU3Tg8JvwHJiupbN_MpG1a2EAsProLz9_oLu

T3fA/edit

3. Letter from Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963, by Martin Luther King Jr.

4. United Nations. (s. f.). Universal Declaration of Human Rights. un.org. Recuperate 9 de

December de 2022, de https://www.un.org/en/udhrbook/pdf/udhr_booklet_en_web.pdf