What Will President Barack Obama Do for Social Justice in the U.S.?

But before that, there is a good initial test: Which issues does a candidate consider "social justice" in the first place? This list will reveal a great deal, even before a voter delves into details.

Conservatives will light the front burner with social justice concerns such as religious faith, abortion, and gay marriage. Progressives or liberals such as Obama are more likely to also include issues such as health care and poverty, based on a theme that social justice requires economic justice.

Some voters of both the conservative and progressive stripe will hear the term "social justice" and immediately think of ethnic racial issues. Obama indeed will speak openly of his African American bloodlines, but he strives for the balance of not dwelling on them.

The conservative versions of social justice issues sometimes place Obama in a tough spot. He supports abortion rights but opposes gay marriage, which causes tough sledding among both conservatives and liberals. He candidly states that he did not come into full religious faith until his adult life and he has credited the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whom now is costing Obama a good number of votes even though the candidate has renounced the minister.

Barack Obama scores far more points, however, when pollsters ask voters their views in terms of economic social justice. He calls for shifting more tax burden back to corporations and the wealthy, reversing various huge reductions for the upper echelon under Ronald Reagan and then George W. Bush. He hopes to raise the minimum wage and/or the earned income tax credit. He vows to find a path toward universal health care, reversing a 60-year string of failures that started with Harry Truman. He aims to invest more in education and alternative energy. During a time of widespread economic hardship, these points are popular with the citizenry.

Among the list of issues on barackobama.com - each linked with the candidate's in-depth statements - the following could be considered social justice issues: civil rights, disabilities, education, faith, family, health care, immigration, Iraq, poverty, rural, service, seniors and Social Security, urban policy, and veterans.

These are matters of interpretation. Some would say Iraq is a war, not a social justice issue. Others would say it ranks Number One. Obama has opposed the war since its beginning in 2003, but he also takes social justice positions that are irregardless of whether he was for or against the invasion. He calls for expanded benefits for veterans, for example, and for improved post-combat screening of conditions that range from stress to traumatic brain injuries. He also aims to address revelations of deplorable conditions at VA hospitals, including the once-venerable Walter Reed Medical Center.

Barack Obama, in saying he will bring America together, strives for linkages. For example, he will ask: Why do some Americans consider abortion as "murder" yet favor capital punishment; cannot we find common ground? Or, he will link receiving with giving: The government will do more to help pay for college, but in turn the student is asked to donate a year or two of community service.

To search for his views, simply do a web search with the name of your chosen issue at the end. For example, http://www.barackobama.com/issues/education.

These pages are comprehensive, agree or disagree, and many of them touch upon social justice. For example, Obama considers troubled schools a question of social justice.

First he states his record on education. As an Illinois state senator, he helped create an Early Learning Council for what often is known as "birth through five," giving increased emphasis to those crucial early years. In Congress, he helped pass improvements to the Higher Education Act. He also has introduced a pair of bills. One would increase federal support for "summer learning opportunities," or what the old guard would simply call summer school. The other would establish teacher residency programs to supply high-needs schools with exceptional teachers.

Senator Obama then states his agenda. For education he has 11 points. In one example, he would reform George Bush's No Child Left Behind Act with a typical trade-off in his give-and-take approach. Standardized tests would be improved, but at the same time schools would be held more accountable.

Obama also would boost funds for early childhood education, give Sputnik-type priority to science and math, intervene into the middle school dropout crisis, double the money for after-school initiatives, enhance bilingual education, increase teacher pay, and require K-12 school accreditation. Furthermore, he would make the first $4,000 of college tuition universally free for all Americans, and he would add even more tuition support to help educate future teachers.

Each of these items is explained in further detail, including social justice aspects. A web surfer could spend a good hour just on education, and Obama's cornucopia of plans is about the same length as a book.

Social justice through civil rights, of course, is one of Obama's strongest areas. He was a community organizer who registered thousands of African Americans in Chicago to vote, and then a civil rights attorney who litigated voting rights, as well as employment and housing discrimination. As an Illinois state legislator he authored bills to punish racial profiling and sharply reduce capital punishment.

Economic rights also translate to social justice, Obama believes. He emphasizes that for every $1 a man earns, earnings for women are 77 cents among whites, 67 cents among blacks and 57 cents among Hispanics. He says one of his first social justice steps as president would be enactment of an equal pay law.

Obama also emphasizes that America will not have social justice without criminal justice, and in this regard he issues some of his strongest race-based statements. He cites statistics that prove people of color are stopped by police more often, and on average receive longer sentences than whites for equivalent crimes. He aims to reduce the prison population while still protecting public safety, relying on community-based sentencing for nonviolent first offenders.

In summary, Barack Obama will continue to cast himself as a candidate for social justice. He not only is the first African American candidate for president, but he is promoting some social justice solutions that no candidate has offered in the past.