Martin Luther King Jr. was a Social Justice Warrior: Why Hyperbole is Destroying the Meaning of Words

Martin Luther King Jr. was a social justice warrior.

Yes. That headline is meant to trigger you. Yes, it sucks to live in a world where we can’t even use the word “trigger” in a genuine way because of how our language has been hijacked and politicized.

Here is the definition of the ward “warrior” according to Miriam Webster Dictionary:

:  a person engaged or experienced in warfare; broadly :  a person engaged in some struggle or conflict 

If we could miraculously erase all of the ugly American history, loaded language, and bitter culture wars from our minds, wouldn’t we all want our social systems to have tenets that hold some regard for justice or fairness? Not to expect that life will always be fair or that we are all guaranteed equal outcomes despite our efforts or qualifications. Justice should be an ideal we strive for, even if we never 100% master the pursuit.

(Let me add the caveat that I also understand that “justice” itself is somewhat of a subjective concept.)

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