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Race relations and ‘the other’ in justice debate

Restorative justice has been on the rise and in so many discussions and researches over the last 30 years. There is still a need for it to inculcate into its discussions and primary concern about cultural in-consideration and racial consideration. This should be done focusing on the victims and members of the justice system who are still looked down upon because of their skin color or origin from cultures and places that are not fully recognized and respected as of importance.

One of the significant reasons Theo Gavrielides gives as a causative reason for this issue is that most of the promoters and those who came up with the restorative justice re-insurrection are whites. Their role in coming up with this was based on trying to bring in success and correct the flaws that had existed before in regards to restorative justice and thus make society better by bridging peace discussions and reconciliations among the members of the society. However, with all these efforts, most of the proponents of restorative justice are whites, and cultural and racial bias never came first to them. Therefore this was not considered very important, which explains why it was not considered (Theo, 217).

Theo Gavrielides points out the issue of restorative justice not recognizing certain aspects that affected the justice system, like cultural and racial backgrounds, as making the restorative justice not fully functioning and acceptable among all the members of the society. This is because it seemingly favors some and pushes away other members of the community.

This article refers to the other refers to a reference to the minority groups in the society who are generally not considered when making decisions about anything in the society. The other relates, therefore, to two aspects of this issue of groups not appreciated. It means those groups in society that are not of importance to the power structures that form the restorative justice system, and these are racial disparities or racial groups considered low class. This also refers to the groups within the society which are not deemed necessary due to their lack of a voice in matters that concern the general society. As Theo Gavrielides states, these two others are the primary cause of the ineffectiveness of the restorative justice system and therefore are not to be ignored or put away as before if justice is to be recognized appropriately (Theo, 218).

Theo Gavrielides gives three significant reasons justice has ignored the issues of racial inequality and disproportionality. One of the reasons most governments are considering issues is their promotion towards the ending of much spending and thus less expenditure of the government. Therefore the issue of racial inequality and disproportionality does not bring this to the government. The second is that this has never been considered an essential aspect of restorative justice but only as side issues of various problematic implementation areas. The third is that for this kind of debate to happen, there is a need to recognize that it is needed, and therefore to most people, this discussion has never been considered as required thus lacks in effect when it comes to these two issues.

Race-related barriers towards the realization of restorative justice are many. They include the fact that people of less critical or less considered racial groups are never supposed to be important in need of urgent justice. This leads to unfairness, and justice towards a black person cannot be emphasized like that of a white person. The structured restorative justice system tends to consider the unrecognized groups of the society to a certain extent; however, that un-structured restorative justice system tends to forget almost entirely about these minority groups (Theo, 219).

In conclusion, therefore, the talk about minority groups of the society and the racial consideration needs to occur. Thus, those not provided with justice to get it as a first option as the other people do get it.

Works cited

Gavrielides, Theo. “Bringing race relations into the restorative justice debate: An alternative and personalized vision of “the other.” Journal of Black Studies 45.3 (2014): 216-246.