Some time ago I was listening to a thoughtful debate on social justice on the radio and an academic who was an expert on the matter of inequality and/or injustice, said, after a long, critical discussion on the state of the country; “we need to start having a conversation about social justice”.
My first reaction was to think that we might need to have a conversation about the arts, business, transport, politics etc.
However, in respect of injustice and inequality, actions are what people who suffer from their effects need, not conversations.
The typical conversation that I usually hear involves a mixture of 1): relating events and/or describing situations in a well-meaning way but that are a good bit off the mark in respect of what very vulnerable and hurt people in the Focus Group experience; and 2): thinking that talking about something solves the problem.
I suppose my reaction was generated by my experience at having been at countless seminars with people from academia heavily represented with either no, or else very tokenistic representation from people whose lives are being discussed.
Because that’s what we have been doing for as long as I remember – having conversations!
For me, the above example (and I could give many more) sums up the norms/values/patterns/beliefs of the Pillars in general but in particular the Pillar of Academia which I will describe in this Sub-Chapter.