Howdy there, Readers!
Please note that there is a trigger warning for this post as I will be discussing potentially triggering content such as racism, sexual assault and rape, ableism, queer antagonism, police brutality, misogyny and rape culture, mass incarceration, white supremacy, oppression, slavery, and other issues that may be troubling. Please proceed with caution.
How are you fine people today? Happy it's Friday for those of you who don't have work on the weekends? I know I am! I live for the weekends. :]
So when last we spoke on the previous Feminist Friday, I promised we would cover a bit more about the notions of oppression and privilege and what roles we each play in both, so that's what we shall do today! :D
Let's start by discussing oppression. I think this is a concept many people struggle with, especially when they're new to the world of social justice, and I feel it would be helpful to get a definition, or a better defined concept, if you will, on the table for us to work off before moving on to privilege.
[Image Description: A rectangle divided into two sections, the left orange and the right white. The left side has white text that reads "Oppression" in all caps, and the right has orange text that reads "Privilege" in all caps.]
Oppression is defined by dictionary.com as "the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner."
This definition, however, is woefully flat and lacking in conveying just what oppression really is. It fails to note that there are various forms of oppression (such as institutional or social), sources of oppression (for example, government policies versus hate groups and individuals), how it is reinforced, the intersecting areas of oppression and privilege (for example, being female but also being able bodied), how exactly oppression is doled out (for example, is it coming in the form of police brutality? discrimination in the work force? an increased likelihood of being attacked in public? etc), and so many other issues.
This is a wonderful demonstration as to why you should never rely solely on a definition provided in a dictionary, especially in such a complex issue as oppression. People who wish to avoid examining their own complicity in being oppressive frequently will point to such simplistic definitions as a sort of shield for their minds, using it as justification in proving to themselves that they are not the problem.
For example, someone who is white and is called out as being racist (and a jerk) by declaring that there is such a thing as "reverse racism" may decide to point obnoxiously at the dictionary definition of racist, "a person who believes in racism, the doctrine that a certain human race is superior to any or all others," and say, "See? You can be racist against white people in the United States. Says so right there! In the dictionary!"
These are the people who make me heave a massive sigh. Many times. Over and over. As I rub my forehead in disbelief and shake my head. The problem with these people is that they deliberately choose to ignore allll the other facts associated with the subject in favor of justifying their own bigotry. They choose to accept a very simplified answer to a hugely complex issue because it allows them to ignore their own behavior as problematic. Instead of searching for ways to see why they are wrong about this issue, they search for proof to back their opinion up. And given that the people who are in charge of defining our English language are generally white and are in a position of extraordinary power, that simplistic definition naturally is best suited for maintaining the status quo of white supremacy rather than smashing it down.
If said white person truly wished to examine why "reverse racism" doesn't exist, they could, instead, delve into the plethora of academic and also less formal material available to them online or in books or other resources written by people of color themselves, detailing exactly what racism is-- an endemic issue that is found at both a social and systemic level that is invested in pumping life into white supremacy while keeping people of color marginalized through discrimination, violence, and other social and legal means. Based on that alone, one can infer that racism being directed at white people when white people are already in control is clearly not possible.
So as you can see, by my ridiculously long worded example lol, it's important to keep in mind the various intricacies that go into this idea of oppression and to always be mindful of others' lived experiences with oppression in addition to the academic information available to you.
Now onto what oppression actually is: What many people on the interwebs and in the oxygen world seem to think of when they conjure up thoughts about oppression seems to be extreme representations of how oppression can appear. For example, people often think of slavery, Jim Crow, women belonging to men, women being forced to stay at home and not being allowed to vote, etc. And while those certainly represent one concept of oppression, it's certainly not the limit of the scope of how insidious oppression can be. Let's take a look at a working definition of oppression for our purposes:
[Image Description: White background with black text that reads "Oppression, at its core, is about keeping power (social, financial, political, what-have-you) with the groups that that power is already associated with and denying it to groups of people without that power."]
This means that oppression goes beyond just the horrific acts of enslavement of people and other forms of human "ownership" and into smaller, yet equally impactful, forms of every day oppression. As you'll see later on, this type of oppression does still lead to horrific violations of human rights today.
Let's take a look at the various forms oppression takes: Two forms of oppression are social oppression and institutionalized oppression. The two are certainly not mutually exclusive, either, with one leading to another and then feeding back into itself from it. We can think of them as a "rule" versus "law" type of mindset.
Social oppression (RULE) occurs when people marginalize others without laws, policies, business practices, imprisonment, etc, being present. For example, while abhorrent, it's not illegal to hate people of color, speak to them in a derogatory manner, or exclude them from private social opportunities that are open to whites. Social oppression happens on a large scale, too, so this isn't simply some bigoted jerk being a jackass occasionally; this is an extremely large group of people (who have access to power) deciding that it's okay to discriminate against and hate people who don't belong to their group. This is socially approved hatred and abuse.
Institutionalized oppression (LAW) occurs when laws, policies, business practices, imprisonment, etc, ARE present. For example, many states abuse their authority and allow for their cops to pull over people of color driving more regularly than they pull over white people driving simply based on a cop's determination for whatever reason that the person driving the car looks "suspicious." More often than not, as shown by people of color's lived experiences and the statistics backing them up, cops will pull over a black person more frequently than a white person simply because cops hold the belief and are trained to believe that people of color are inherently more suspicious than white people.
Now let's take a look at how these types of oppression intersect, overlap, feed off each other, criss-cross, and all kinds of other wacky stuff.
[Image Description: A diagram on a white background with black text at the top that reads "Social and Institutionalized Oppression: A demonstration as to how social and institutionalized oppression feed off one another" above a group of four circles with black text on each, along with a gray banner atop each. The top left circle is pink and has text that reads "Black people are untrustworthy." The banner above it reads "Social." There is a dashed line that leads to the next circle to the right. This circle is yellow and reads "Pull black people over for being viewed as suspicious." Its banner reads "Institutional." There is another dashed line leading diagonally to the left and bottom where there is a green circle with text that reads "Statistics show black people are pulled over more often." Its banner reads "Result." There is another dahed line leading to the final circle to its right which is orange and has text that reads "Black people are untrustworthy." Its banner reads "Social & Institutional."]
As you can see, social oppression, which many people write off as just being bigotry in individual jerks and sadly one of those unavoidable issues in life, leads to much greater consequences. Take this chart into consideration:
[Image Description: An illustrated background made to look like a piece of paper with blue lines and punch holes in it. On it is “written” two columns; the left column is titled "Social" in orange text and the right is "Institutional." Below the "Social" column is black text that reads "Misogyny: Women are not to be trusted, Women are inferior to men; Racism: People of color are not to be trusted, People of color are inferior to whites; Ableism: People with disabilities are lazy, People with disabilities are liars; Queer Antagonism: Queer people are sinful and unnatural" Underneath the "Institutional" column, aligning each section with the left is text that reads "Misogyny: Survivors of rapes and assaults are rarely given justice in court, Women usually do not receive equal pay; Racism: People of color are imprisoned more than whites, People of color are victims of police brutality more than whites; Ableism: People with disabilities are given few means to survive by the government, People with disabilities are forced through obstacles to "prove" their disability/disabilities; Queer Antagonism: Queer people are denied human rights and work force protection"]
This demonstrates the clear connection between what happens at a non-legal level and the legal consequences of such behavior and beliefs. If people who run the government uphold oppression in their social lives, they will, point-blank, continue to uphold that oppression at a state policy level. This is why it is crucial to fight oppression at every level, especially given that new generations of people learn oppressive behaviors and thoughts from both a social level and an institutional level. This is why it is so important to call out people, including ourselves, when they are engaging in oppressive, marginalizing behavior. This is why that guy in the bar making rape jokes is not just an insensitive asshole but is also contributing to a wider culture (which we describe as rape culture, by the way) of oppression of women.
So I hope this post has given you a better understanding as to what oppression is and the forms it takes and such. I think I'm gonna leave the discussion of privilege (along with a little more on oppression) for the next Feminist Friday since this turned out to be quite a bit longer than I originally anticipated. :] (I'm a wordy little fucker. lol) So next time, we'll discuss more of the topics introduced at the beginning of this post where we questioned the rather disappointing dictionary definition of oppression, along with how we fit into oppression ourselves. :] I hope you'll all feel free to discuss in the comments any thoughts y'all have on this issue of oppression, including any questions you may have on the topic! Can't wait to talk with you again, and remember, SHE-HULK SMASH OPPRESSION!!! >:D
Until next time, fair Readers!
Mischief Managed~
Jessi
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