Commentaries by Lance Hill

By Lance Hill
May 2008
 
In recent months there has been a distinct shift among many recovery volunteers and professional workers coming to New Orleans; they no longer are satisfied with doing humanitarian relief work but instead want to engage in what they refer to as “social justice work.”  Now is good time to define the differences between these two recovery strategies. 
 
Simply put, the goal of humanitarian relief is to help everyone in need, rich or poor, and to not attempt to change people or institutions.   It is largely a philosophy derived from a spiritual view of the world and change through personal sacrifice and action.  Social justice work, on the other hand, has the goal of changing institutions that produce inequality and injustice; it is a reform strategy that acknowledges that there are groups and institutions that claim to be solving problems when in fact they are perpetuating them.  Regardless of how altruistic one’s intentions may be, a person working for one of these institutions can cause more harm than good.  Social justice work recognizes that good intentions do not justify mistakes that harm people who have already been victimized.
 
Social justice work means that recovery volunteers and workers have a moral obligation to do their homework in advance to ensure that you are not perpetuating injustice or creating dependency, but instead building the capacity of a community to recover and thrive on its own resources.  It requires that the volunteer/worker (1) understands how a community’s institutions and practices are creating an unjust and unequal society; (2) makes sure that their work serves the truly needy and does not limit the opportunities of others in the process; and (3) results in lasting institutional and community change that empowers local people to control their own futures. 
 

Social justice is ultimately about social, economic and political power.  It recognizes that voluntarism is insufficient to solve the problems of Katrina: that we must harness the resources and power of government.  It is a political strategy for re-ordering government priorities; it obligates volunteers/activists to go beyond personal contributions and caring acts to embrace educating the larger public to the injustices. 
 

Finally, social justice means that our work begins, not ends, with the contributions we make in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.  When we return to our communities, we must continue our work by awakening the nation’s conscience and securing a national mandate for federal intervention.

Lance Hill is Executive Director of the Southern Institute for Education and Research at Tulane University and Author of The Deacons for Defense: Armed Resistance and the Civil Rights Movement.   Permission is granted to reprint and reproduce this commentary.  To subscribe to future commentaries, just google for “Commentaries by Lance Hill.” He can be reached at Lhill@tulane.edu