Imagining justice: concepts and frameworks

¶ … Justice

Reading Jonathan Kozol's The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society serves as an eye opener to the devastating consequences of illiteracy for both the individual and society as a whole. Kozol paints such a vivid picture of the distressing impact of illiteracy on an individual's self-identity, self-sufficiency, material and physical well being, that he succeeds in arousing a sense of awareness that it is an area of social concern, which must be addressed, especially when one is confronted with the staggering statistic of 60 million illiterate people in the world's leading democracy and super power.

Kozol uses true-to-life examples to describe the different areas of life that illiteracy affects. He describes individuals who are: deprived of the right to exercise an informed vote; filled with a sense of shame and inadequacy caused by an inability to guide their children through school; forced into settling for less than the best because they are unable to read a menu or product label; at risk of endangering their own and the lives of their family as they cannot read the statutory warnings on medicine labels; at a disadvantage financially since the question of operating a bank account, reading welfare and IRS notices or lease agreements does not arise; forced into personally paying utility bills in cash as they do not know how to write and mail a check; constantly faced with limited choices be it in choice of entertainment or recipes; unable to travel on their own. Overriding or rather omnipresent in all these situations is a pervading sense of humiliation, helplessness and a terrifying sense of dependency on someone else's words, choice and judgment.

Kozol's narrative is so heartfelt, it is only too easy to picture each case and identify with it and the fact that for such people and the nation, life is on a "one-way street" (Kozol, 5) to farce and tragedy, unless steps are taken to correct the situation.

Mantsios's substantive argument that Americans are reluctant to talk about class is hard to refute. Nowhere does one hear the use of the term 'class' any more to describe any aspect of society. Indeed, in this day and age of sensitized 'politically' correct behavior and language, such terms are considered totally insensitive and unmannerly. As Mantsios points out, American social institutions that "shape mass culture and define the parameters of public debate have avoided class issues...unacceptable...un-American." (Mantsios, 2)

Mantsios hypothesizes that this reluctance can either be explained by the fact that class distinctions are not relevant to U.S. society, or that America operates under a set of beliefs that obscure the harsh reality of class existence and their impact on people's lives. Mantsios then proceeds to shatter the premise that class distinctions are not relevant to U.S. society by presenting statistics that prove just the opposite: the wealthiest 20% of the population holds 85% of the total household wealth in the country; 13% live below the poverty line; 60% of the population holds less than 4% of the nation's wealth; and the gap between the rich and the poor is bigger than it ever has been. Mantsios also challenges the set of core beliefs about the United States: equality in the eyes of the law with basic needs such as health care and education being made available to all; relative affluence; upward economic progress by all; and an equal chance to succeed. Mantsios does this by systematically presenting facts that disprove each: disparate life styles among the 'haves, have-nots, and the have-littles'; statistical data that shows the impact of class on health care, life expectancy, educational attainment, and opportunity to succeed; and finally the compound effect of factors such as sexism and racism.