UNCC300 Semester 2 Supplementary Assessment: Racism and Social Justice

This essay, a supplementary assessment for UNCC300, delves into the detrimental effects of racism on the common good, both locally and globally. The student reflects on how racism challenges social justice and violates basic principles. The essay then proposes several solutions, advocating for a more just society. These solutions include protecting the basic rights of individuals, respecting workers' rights, and the government playing a crucial role in preventing institutional racism by implementing fair policies. The student demonstrates an understanding of the Common Good and Catholic Social Teaching (CST) principles, such as rights and responsibilities, the dignity of work, and solidarity, to support their arguments and propose practical strategies to combat racism and promote equality within society. The essay emphasizes the importance of education and societal cooperation to eradicate racism and foster a more inclusive and equitable future.

Running Head: Uncc300 – Supplementary Assessment
UNCC300 – SUPPLEMENTARY ASSESSMENT

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Table of Contents
Reflection on the fact that racism is challenging or neglecting the common good...................3
Proposing ways to address challenges to achieving a more just society or community............4
Reference list..............................................................................................................................7

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Reflection on the fact that racism is challenging or neglecting the common good
Racism is any discrimination or prejudice against some individuals who are from
different races or groups. As opined by Gregory (2016), racism is a strong belief regarding
superiority of a specific race and inferiority of another. The concept of racial separatism
comes from racism, which states that various races must remain segregated from one another.
On the other hand, common good is a concept, in which society gets benefitted as a whole
without any discrimination. Raskin (2019) stated that the common good is generally achieved
if we work together for improving the wellbeing of the majority of people in society. The
common good is achieved if a balance is maintained between personal possessions,
community resources and needs of dispossessed people in the society. Racism hampers this
balance of common good and the needs of the disadvantaged group of the society remained
affected.
Racism is an infectious disease, which spreads due to the fear of some people in our
society and the ignorance of others (Bell, 2019). This gives rise to different racism activities
like taunting, lynching, and others. The common good can be achieved through respecting
others and preserving the rights of others. According to the CST principles, the dignity of
humans can be preserved and a healthy society can be built, if the rights of all the people are
maintained. Moreover, each section of our society must conduct their responsibilities
properly, which can help to preserve the common good. Any sorts of racism activities violate
this principle and a section of the community gets affected.
The CST principle of dignity of work is also framed to preserve and gain common
good. As stated by Banton (2018), the economy needs to serve all sections of the community
by creating a chance of work, which is essential for living. The dignity of work and the rights
of workers gets hampered in our society by racism. The dignity of work can be protected by
conserving the basic rights of people. This includes the right to productive work and

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providing fair wages. Any sort of racism activity can impact both the dignity of work and the
common good of people. In other words, the way we organize our society in different aspects
like politics, economics, and the law will directly impact the capacity of community to grow.
Racism reduces options for poor and vulnerable groups in society and impact on the principle
of solidarity. According to the CST principle, we are on human family irrespective of races,
castes, and nationalities (Cctwincities.org, 2019).
Proposing ways to address challenges to achieving a more just society or community
Racism has become a disease and it is challenging the concept of the common good.
Based on the racist perception, many people are not thinking about the benefit of all actors of
the society. As mentioned by Westheimer (2015), it has become important to find ways to
address challenges made by racism in terms of local and global contexts. As an advocate,
CST principles can be overviewed to identify potential solutions to the challenges of racism.
The basic rights of person in society must be protected and all the responsibilities
must be met. According to the CST principle of rights and responsibilities, everyone
needs to perform their duties to others. This must be done free from all kinds of biases. As
suggested by Danis, Wilson & White (2016), one needs to speak for others who are not
getting equal opportunities within society. On the other hand, this CST principle supports that
every human being has the right to life and individuals must be aware of their rights.
Everyone in society must be encouraged to understand their responsibilities towards each
other, society and their families. People with every color must be able to access all the
resources available and they must get equal opportunities to explore in every field. This
approach can help this society to fight for the common good and equality can be established.
For example, if a person needs medical support, his or her race must not be checked. Instead,
the perspective of human dignity and the common good must be prioritized. Everyone must
be able to access healthcare services and there must be no barriers of race.

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Another possible way of mitigating the challenge to the common good is
respecting the rights of workers. Under the concept of racism in many cases, workers face
discrimination in terms of workplace opportunities. There are many companies in this world,
who have biased people in the management team those support racism in the workplace. As
stated by White-Davis et al. (2018), adhering to the CST principle of the dignity and the
rights of workers can help to implement this proposed solution of mitigating the challenges
to common goods. According to this principle, everyone needs to respect the basic rights of
workers. All of the workers in this globe must get equal opportunities and no one has the
authority to treat them based on their race. Protecting the dignity of work is a part of this
solution. On the other hand, DeMatthews (2019) have mentioned that organizations and their
management teams must be encouraged to provide equal opportunities to all of their
employees regarding fair wages, productive work, joining of union, economic initiatives and
personal property. Respecting the dignity of workers by the management team can make the
employees feel that they are important parts of the organization. A racism-free workplace can
motivate workers to provide their best effort within the company to help in achieving
business goals.
The government needs to play an essential role to prevent institutional racism by
framing policies, which impacts all parts of society equally. The government needs to act
as an instrument for protecting and promoting human dignity (Cctwincities.org). The
government must frame rules and policies, which can guide the people of society for
performing their responsibilities without any discrimination. As per the principle of
solidarity, functions of government need to be performed at lower levels as much as possible.
This can help vulnerable parts of a community to gain their rights such as the right to work.
The government needs to focus on poor and vulnerable if the society is polluted by divisions
such as the division between rich or poor or higher and lower castes. Different programs can

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be initiated by the government for increasing the education of society regarding harmful
impacts of these divisions. Moreover, different initiatives must be taken in terms of health
services, work and education to provide support to the disadvantaged people of the society.
As stated by Westheimer (2015), providing education to the society regarding harmful
impacts of racism can remove divisions and humans can live as a family in larger society in
the future. The government of countries may adhere to the CST principle of Solidarity for
implementing this solution in practice. This principle allows people to think of everyone as
one big human community (Usccb.org, 2015). There must not be the word "racism" in terms
of treating people. On the other hand, it can be stated that the institutes must cooperate with
the country's government to eradicate racism from the educational system. The policy must
include that students, as well as teachers, must be encouraged to consider all human beings as
their brothers and sisters free from the biased perspective of racism. In this wary, a fair
system of education without racism can be established.

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Reference list
Banton, M. (2018). The concept of racism. In Race and racialism 17-34. Retrieved
from:https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781351039345/chapters/
10.4324/9781351039345-2
Bell, K. M. (2019). “This is Not Who We Are:” Progressive Media and Post-Race in the New
Era of Overt Racism. Communication Culture & Critique, 12(1), 1-17. Retrieved
from:https://academic.oup.com/ccc/article-abstract/12/1/1/5365565
Cctwincities.org (2019), KEY PRINCIPLES OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING, ”.
Retrieved on 23rd December 2019
fromhttps://www.cctwincities.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Key-10-Principles-of-
CST-1-pager-2017.pdf
Danis, M., Wilson, Y., & White, A. (2016). Bioethicists can and should contribute to
addressing racism. The American Journal of Bioethics, 16(4), 3-12. Retrieved
from:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5477988/
DeMatthews, D. (2019). Addressing racism and ableism in schools: A DisCrit leadership
framework for principals. The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies,
Issues and Ideas, 1-8. Retrieved
from:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00098655.2019.1690419
Gregory, Wilton D., (2016). “Racism is a disease that must be cured”, Retrieved on 23rd
December 2019 from:
http://www.catholicnews.com/services/englishnews/2016/racism‐is‐a‐disease‐that‐
must‐be‐ cured.cfm
Raskin, M. G. (2019). The common good: Its politics, policies and philosophy (Vol. 49). UK:
Routledge.

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Usccb.org (2015). ‘Seven themes of Catholic Social Teaching”. Retrieved on 23rd December
2019 from: http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catholic-
social-teaching/seven-themes-of-catholic-social-teaching.cfm
Westheimer, J. (2015). What kind of citizen?: Educating our children for the common good.
US: Teachers College Press.
White-Davis, T., Edgoose, J., Speights, J. B., Fraser, K., Ring, J., Guh, J., & Saba, G. (2018).
Addressing racism in medical education an interactive training module. Family
medicine, 50(5), 364-368. Retrieved
from:https://journals.stfm.org/familymedicine/2018/may/white-davis-2017-0183