The concept of modern social justice is a complex one, as well as one that has become highly politicized over the past several years. While the original concept of social justice had been one of fighting for class equality and subsequently for gender and racial equality in society, as well as working to dismantle institutional and social mechanisms of oppression, the concept has since changed rather dramatically (Griffiths, 1998, p. 301). Today’s “social justice warriors,” as they are often disparagingly called, are leading the push towards intersectionality, the dismantling of “patriarchal” societal infrastructures, and other tenets of far-left political ideology.

While the core principle of fighting on behalf of the oppressed and against those responsible for their oppression, it is clear that social justice has undergone a significant transformation in recent history in the aforementioned regard. In today’s world, being a proponent of social justice is essentially a political position placing immense value in the practice of identity politics and criticizing the overwhelming majority of the institutions that collectively form our modern society.

Although identity politics is by no means a new or even recent concept, as its existence can be traced back decades, despite that existence being inherently minimal until more recent years. In the early days of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, the premise of social justice was to align oneself with and to fight alongside African-Americans as they demanded their equal treatment under the law and within American society. However, as that movement had come to its rightful conclusion of disintegrating segregation and pushing African-Americans towards a sense of equality in society, the concept of identity politics had formed as a means of pushing forward allegiances and agendas centered on concepts relating to identity.

While there existed a shared goal of recognizing and combatting general societal inequities, different oppressed groups had other fundamentally different goals in mind as well (Hodge, 2014, p. 175). Whereas the concept of social justice in securing equal rights for African-Americans had secured its goal—at least to a noteworthy degree—it was destined to evolve beyond that point to encompass an even greater fight. The oppression of other minority groups had soon come to light and garnered a great deal of attention similar to that given to the Civil Rights Movement, with the fight for LGBT rights being one prominent example. As individual groups had emerged to the forefront in a fight for justice for their individual groups, however, the concept of identity politics had simultaneously entered the mainstream of American political discourse.

Continuing into the modern day, identity politics has only grown in prominence, with a significant divide now existing in the left wing of American political ideology. A far-left with social justice having become its central focus is now essentially at war ideologically with a centrist-leaning left that finds itself more aligned with the classic tenets of social justice in valuing equality and favoring classically liberal economic policy. That classically liberal economic policy favors the prospect of a right to work, a right to access health care, and other principles espoused by past leaders in such social justice like former President Franklin D. Roosevelt (Grant & Gibson, 2013, p. 81). This divide on the political left has only empowered the so-called social justice warriors in furthering the push to dominate the left-wing and bring radical and fundamental change to American society, far beyond the original goal of instilling a value of human equality on American society. Utilizing concepts of identity and in turn characteristics of identity politics as core components of the social justice movement, those within that movement are now leading a fight to tear down the oppressing class and the society they had built. Capitalism, law enforcement, and our entire system of government have all become targets of radical reform if not outright removal under the new social justice movement, which has only been growing more empowered as American society grows considerably more left-wing.

The ideology of the modern-day social justice movement in the United States borrows from the tenets of identity politics in that it intertwines the goals of various different social groups. The collectivization of those goals ultimately leads to an end goal that is wholly incompatible with the structural basis of this country as it exists today—an intersectionality of the oppressed and their combined vision for a future in which those blamed for their previous oppression face punishment and wherein they are provided the power and control that they were previously denied. The power and privilege of the oppressing class is therefore transferred to the oppressed class, with the oppressed class taking on the responsibility of rebuilding the society of its former oppressors (Lewis, 2001, p. 189). The oppressed are characterized primarily as heterosexual, Caucasian males responsible for the implementation of free market capitalism, slavery, segregation, gender discrimination, and the various other forms of oppression that have defined the United States of America since its founding all the way into the modern day. The patriarchal and oppressive society that they are seen as responsible for developing and sustaining throughout the course of American history is seen as entirely incompatible with the modern ideology of social justice, and is therefore targeted for destruction.

Social justice as it exists today is no longer the same concept as it was just a few decades ago, as the modern ideology of social justice has shifted towards a combination of identity politics and the desire to tear down the oppressive infrastructures of modern American society. While the intention behind these goals certainly began as a noble one, with the push towards human equality being the most deservedly recognized accomplishment of the social justice movement in recent history, the new path it has taken is admittedly troubling. While there certainly remain a great deal of flaws within modern-day America, seeking to tear it down and rebuild it is neither a feasible nor a rational goal in line with that which defined the movement’s origins. Modern-day social justice is seemingly far too radical of a concept to ever achieve the kind of implementation it hopes for, signifying the need to make a return to its classical definition and further the aim for an egalitarian society.