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Thursday, October 1, 2015

Our Justice Is Complicated | The Jose Vilson

Our Justice Is Complicated | The Jose Vilson:

Our Justice Is Complicated



For some reason, my Pocket app has been full of idiosyncratic profile pieces. This Fader one of Drake. This POLITICO one of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. This New York Times obitdedicated to teacher-turned-community activist Terry Rosenbaum. This Esquire bit on the old new Mark Zuckerberg.
So when La Galeria Magazine published their profile on me today, on the same day that the most beloved education blogger would visit my classroom, I was curious about what’s happened since the last time she visited my class.
One of the recurring themes I see in my work is the idea of justice as a messy and complicated idea. That’s where justice needs to be served. Justice isn’t a facile thing. Whereas any number of situations can be looked at from a binary lens, I’m more excited by the idea that most of the work we must do requires finer instruments than folks have used. Most of this work feels more like knowing when to use a Phillips screwdriver instead of a hammer, or when to use a drill instead of a pocket knife.
Most of my friends have more than one tool in their toolbox.
Some of us have grown rather weary of the binary, favoring social justice through all the layers it Our Justice Is Complicated | The Jose Vilson: