Am I Hopeful For the Future of Social Justice?

I would say that I do feel hopeful when I think about the future of social justice in the US. It can definitely be difficult have hope when there are still so many people pushing back, and the threat of the future looms ahead, but despite that, I do generally feel hope. I know a lot of people, myself included, that feel deeply passionate about creating change and I believe it will happen. There is a collective of people that I know will not give up until things are better, and there is a lot of power in that. Another thing that gives me hope, is how social media is helping social justice initiatives to spread and become huge and powerful.

Over my lifetime, and even just the past 5 years, I have seen so much change already. From same sex-marriage being legalized, to the Black Lives Matter protests during the summer of 2020, change is happening, and there are a lot of people that support this change. When collective groups of people come together, they can make a huge impact. What starts as a few people can spread to a huge group who can put pressure on the government, corporations, and other people in power who can change the system.

While all throughout history groups of people have come together in the name of social change, I think that the ability to do this and the power of the resulting effects are made much stronger by the presence of social media. Movements can spread extremely widely in just matter of days, putting pressure on people power. Being able to see this happen several times gives me a lot of hope. I am able to see that there are a lot of likeminded people that are willing to fight for social justice.

While it’s easy to feel disheartened, I feel a lot of hope for the future of social justice. I believe in the power of people coming together and I think that will really be able to make a difference.