In this society, there are many systemic injustices. In this article, I want to discuss examples of systemic injustices related to social status. China is a big agricultural country. Long ago, China’s main development relied on agriculture. This has led to many farmers who depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. Now, China is slowly developing, committed to technological progress, and is building more and more cities. But there will still be very remote rural areas, and those farmers who rely on agriculture for their livelihoods live in remote rural areas. However, many people in the city ridiculed and insulted the peasants because they had no higher education, low income, and low social status. This shows that discrimination against farmers is very common in Chinese society. If you use Spivak’s concept, these farmers are called subalterns in society, and they have no status or power. They do not have any right to speak, and even if they speak, they will not be heard by the public. Subalterns symbolize the bottom people of society.
I think the reason for this kind of prejudice and discrimination is that many people have been studying hard since they were young. If they do not study hard, they will not have a high social status. They can only do dirty and tiring things, such as farmers. I think the stereotypes created by such discrimination and prejudice are very bad. If people do not make changes, this stereotype will continue to exist, and more and more people will begin to discriminate against farmers and have wrong views of them. For example, as mentioned in the video below, people with higher social status will think that people with lower social status are lazy. This is a very wrong concept, which is also very detrimental to the overall social atmosphere and national culture. This will also cause more and more people to abandon agriculture and choose to go to cities to find opportunities to obtain higher social status, but this will lead to the decline of the agricultural industry, which will also affect the economy, and social development will also stagnate. I think that to change this institutional injustice, we should establish the concept of equality for all. Regardless of social status, everyone has their own unique value. For example, farmers can bring value to the agricultural industry, while university professors can bring value to education and other technological industries. Although the social status of university professors is much higher than that of farmers, they all have their own value and have made contributions to this society. We should not judge a person according to social status but should judge a person by behavior and contribution. If we change our original intention, this society will develop faster, and this systemic injustice can be quickly improved.
Image from:
“Tackling class-based discrimination in British culture”
Link to Youtube Video:
Hi Yu,
Thank you for your sharing of the Diary of Systemic injustices. By reading the content in your diary, I have a general understanding of the “hukou” system in China. As you said, although the “hukou” system is an effective way to manage the population, it is also injustice. Everyone has their own value and should receive the same right. I do look forward to a better solution.