I’m a STEM girly. 

My mode of operating is: doing, observing, thinking, referencing, interpreting, then putting what I see and know into words and frameworks that inform my worldview. Also known as the scientific method.

I started community organizing and service because I wanted to solve problems that were existential to me. And I’m half-decent at solving problems.

So when I stumbled into the social justice organizing space, I thought theory and practice were supposed to align. I thought if it’s named, it must be real.

But I was fooled.

There were all these people fluent in social justice speak who quoted theory, debated naming systems, called out structures.

They use words like:

Intersectionality.

Supremacy.

Gentrification.

Oppression.

Patriarchy.

Radical.

Privilege.

Justice.

And acronyms like:

2SLGBTQIA+

IBPOC

AFAB

ACAB

I admired it. I thought fluency meant understanding, and understanding meant action.

But I was wrong.

Some of them didn’t know what those words meant at all.

Others knew, but only in the abstract. Ideas talked about, but not actually lived.

They say they’re against gentrification, but their actions reinforce it.

They say they oppose cultural erasure, but they’re first to appropriate and overwrite.

They say they’re for justice, but only when it serves them.

They say they’re radical, but it’s just saviourship dressed as charity.

They say they fight oppression, but they’re quick to dominate, and call it setting boundaries.

They say they support reconciliation, but only if they remain centred.

They say they build community safety, but they’re the first to violate trust.

They say they believe in intersectionality, but ignore their own unexamined privileges.

They say they reject patriarchy, but act like patriarchs in disguise.

They say they believe in mutual aid, but gatekeep it for their friends.

They say they want to combat supremacy and practice horizontality, but seize power without accountability.

It turns out justice can be just vocabulary. An empty posture.

You know how they say that you should never trust anything you see on social media?

It applies to social justice too.

Just because someone loudly proclaims justice online doesn’t mean they say the same things in private, or do the same things in person.

Social justice has become cool.

An aesthetic.

A brand.

An artistic practice.

A documentary.

Words to spar with online trolls.

Mics and social media are a stage, and justice is simply theatre.

I started to notice something: justice didn’t need to mean anything, it just needed to look good.

Justice becomes branding. Words become slogans. Movements become merch. “Radical” becomes a vibe. Even organizing is treated as an art form more than a commitment.

The irony is, justice often shows up in places and in people who don’t proclaim to be socially just or part of any movement at all.

It might even be the corporate girl boss or the boba liberal. They do things because it’s the right thing to do. They speak up when it matters. They notice who’s being hurt, and who’s doing the hurting.

It’s a quiet type of everyday justice where there’s no applause, no celebrations, no rewards.

This is the lesson I’ve learned: don’t confuse loudness with ethics, and don’t confuse aesthetics with action.

Justice, if it exists, isn’t what people say when the cameras are on. It’s who they become when no one is watching.