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Social Justice Resources: About Social Justice

Libraries are for everyone Credit: Rebecca McCorkindale

Libraries Are For Everyone

Anti-Racist & Social Justice Reading Lists

1,000 Black Girl Books Resource Guide (limit by Young Adult)

1,000 Books for Black Boys

Anti-Racist Resources & Reads (lists for all ages)

Anti-Racist List from Ibram X. Kendi

Social Justice for Teens

How Did We Get Here? 163 years of The Atlantic's writing on race and racism in America

Below are some books you can borrow from the GHS library or access online with your GPS Google account. There are many more books that address these issues - please ask for help to find them.

What is Social Justice?

Social justice is defined as "... promoting a just society by challenging injustice and valuing diversity." It exists when "all people share a common humanity and therefore have a right to equitable treatment, support for their human rights, and a fair allocation of community resources." In conditions of social justice, people are "not be discriminated against, nor their welfare and well-being constrained or prejudiced on the basis of gender, sexuality, religion, political affiliations, age, race, belief, disability, location, social class, socioeconomic circumstances, or other characteristic of background or group membership."

Source:  Robinson, Matthew.  What is Social Justice?  Department of Government and Justice Studies, Appalachian State University

What is Social Responsibility?

Social responsibility, in general, takes social justice into a realm of action. Libraries of all types are taking a more active part in their communities, "serving as sites for free public Internet access, digital literacy and digital inclusion classes, gateways to education and employment as well as social services and e-government, and even emergency response roles." "Collaborating with other service agencies and organizations to meet specific community needs allows libraries and other cultural heritage institutions to use the unique skills of their staff, their community position, and their access to information resources to help address community problems that might otherwise go untended." 

Source: Jaeger, P.T., Shilton, K., & Koepfler, J. (2016). The rise of social justice as a guiding principle in library and information science research. Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy, 86(1), 1-9.