Humanization And Dehumanization Of Oppressors By Paulo Feire

In The Colonizer and the Colonized, Albert Memmi presents his arguments on the benefits and problems of assimilation of the colonized. According to Memmi, bilingualism of the colonized is a benefit and a problem for the colonized. In addition, he illustrates how self-rejection, self-hate, and shame are problems of assimilation by the colonized. After providing evidence of Memmi’s arguments, I will analyze whether the arguments he provides on the answer of assimilation in his book still hold up in modern society. Although Memmi provides pros and cons to assimilation being the answer to colonization, there really is no benefit if it means that suffering is the root cause of one choosing to assimilate to the oppressors.

oppressors and it is not possible for them to understand the oppressed community and their

Dehumanization is the process of psychologically removing all human aspects of an individual or group of people with certain similarities, they are often seen as the enemy. The implications from the process of dehumanization can be catastrophic for those on who is it carried out upon. Dehumanization can lead to inhumane treatment and disregard for human rights. When analyzing many instances of colonization in history it is common to find colonization, power, knowledge and dehumanization closely linked together. Dehumanization has a very clear role in the process of colonization, it is often used a tool for the normally unjust treatment of a specific group of people to be over looked and even accepted by society. Many people feel that this is a historical phenomenon but that would be incorrect as its still extremely present in todays world just in subtler methods.

In The Colonizer and the Colonized, Albert Memmi’s essential argument is that the collapse of colonialism is inevitable. According to Memmi, there are only two answers for the colonized to disrupt the system of oppression. The two possible “solutions” are assimilation and revolt. In response to the marginalization of the colonized, both answers carry a high price. In Memmi’s eyes, neither will work in the end. The first of two answers on the road to collapsing colonization is assimilation. Imitation and compromise are not the answer to decolonizing, for neither the colonized nor the colonizer.

Cultural invasion is another tool that is used by those in power as a means of control. This powerful tool of manipulation is meant to skillfully influence, and keep those who are oppressed in line. By making the oppressed feel inferior - invaders are able to manipulate their ideas about culture, and the world. By prohibiting originality and self-individuality they are able to form a oneness with their invaders. The process of cultural invasion is a formality because the basic ideas of oppression have already been set in place from prior generations. These basic element of control depend on an uneducated society who are in despair, and feel that this is their only way of achieving freedom. The oppressed are led to believe that in order for the culture to survive- key facts must be set in place.

My chosen theme, dehumanization, has affected my thoughts about our responsibility to one another by making me realize that we are not different at all, in fact, we’re all the same. No matter what race, gender, religion, or sexual preference. We should be responsible for one another because we are all human, not wild animals. We should not have to fight over trivial things, we are all livings beings but my evidence could almost prove otherwise, these starved, beaten, and tortured men have become

Night By: Elie Wiesel For my essay about Night By: Elie Wiesel, I used the first essay question. One example of an event which dehumanized Eliezer, his father, and his fellow Jews was when the Nazis deprived the Jews of their basic human needs, adequate shelter, clean water, and an adequate amount of nutritious food.

"There may be times where we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest" said Elie Wiesel. Dehumanization played a large role in the holocaust. They labeled, did experiments, and tortured millions of people. The nazis made them less than human and it made all of what they did easier. Not only was dehumanization apart of the holocaust, it became apart of society today.

Dehumanization worked for the Nazis in WW2. Dehumanization is the process of making feel helpless and unworthy. The Nazis ideology was to dehumanize all the Jews. The effects of dehumanization are to weaken the person that is being dehumanized by mental and physical mistreatment. The ways the Nazis physically mistreated the Jews were hitting, beating, and death runs. The ways the Nazis mentally mistreated the Jews were yelling and screaming at them. The Nazis also put Jews into cattle cars. Which to me shows how the Nazis see the Jews as lower level species and how that is one way of dehumanization. Another thing the Nazis did to dehumanize the Jews was to split up their families. The reason behind this was so they could feel hopeless and not have anyone to help them in need.

Because of this, those that utilize this form of oppression are able to take advantage of individuals and isolate them in society. For example, “racialize groups in the United States, especially Blacks and Latinos, are oppressed through capitalist superexploitation resulting from a segmented labor market that tends to reserve skilled, high-paying, unionized jobs for whites.” (pg. 51) It is here where we see the injustice of exploitation by the ability of one group to “transfer energies to another, and therefore enabling social institutions to help few accumulate while constraining many more.” (pg. 53) As the amount of people that are constrained continues to increase, exploitation begins to take the form of marginalization.

The oppressor is dominant, powerful, and unified. The oppressor is disadvantaged, weak, and divided. Often times in the healthcare system, the oppressor appears to be the for-profit corporations, investors, and government to name a few. Similarly on the other end of the spectrum, the oppressed are regularly identified as the poor, minorities, and those that are underprivileged. Sadly, these descriptors are typically accurate in the United States and the world abroad. Freire identifies characteristics of the oppressor as selfish, manipulative of others, abusive of power, and fails to recognize others as humans. He describes characteristics of the oppressed as denying the self, prevented from being authentic, and as being exploited and manipulated without realization (Butts & Rich,

Decolonization is the undoing of colonialism, where a nation establishes and maintains its domination over dependent territories. In the words of Fanon, in the reading The Wretched of the Earth, “National liberation, national reawakening, restoration of the na­tion to the people or Commonwealth, whatever the name used, whatever the latest expression, decolonization is always a violent event.” (Fanon, 1). Frantz Fanon was one of many authors who supported decolonization struggles occurring after World War II. He breaks down decolonization into two senses: one being the physical act of freeing a territory from external control of a colonizer, and the other being the psychological act of freeing the consciousness of the native from the alienation caused by colonization. Fanon particularly advocated that violence was justified by overthrowing colonial oppression. In his reading, The Wretched of the Earth, Fanon wrote on why and how colonialism must be stopped. Fanon argued that the colonial infrastructure must be destroyed. “Decolonization, which sets out to change the order of the world, is clearly an agenda for total disorder. But it cannot be accomplished by the wave of a magic wand, a natural cataclysm, or a gentleman’s agreement. Decolonization, we know, is an historical process: In other words, it can only be understood, it can only find its significance and become self coherent insofar as we can discern the history-making movement which gives it form and substance,”

The original Social Contract tradition has had many authors, but for the purposes of this paper I will focus on John Locke’s work as one political system that might be used by a nation and the problems it entails that would have to be discussed for modern uses. Locke begins by describing a state of nature that entails equality and a state of perfect freedom for mankind to live as they want within the laws of nature (Locke 2009, 370). Locke’s work argues for his view of property, where a man has the right to the fruits of his labor but not to another man’s (Locke 2009, 372). In his view, the government is meant to prevent on man from seeking punishment that is unfit for the committed crime and that people join together for protection for themselves and their property (Locke 2009, 371-372). He argues also that no one man should be in charge and that a democracy should be used instead (Locke 2009, 371).

If prompted with the question what is colonization and or how did Europe and America colonize different countries and peoples the answer might be as simple as: it was the process of taking land from other countries and pushing to change the peoples of those countries towards western ways. This answer is to simple, a lot of people do not know the motives behind colonizing another country. Even though the motives behind colonizing another country depend on the time and location of the colonizing, Europe and America have always set above every other country around the world. They title themselves as being superior to all others. Thus, a lot of countries bought into the western ways and believe Westerners to be “demigod”. In Michael Adas essay, Contested Hegemony: The Great War and the Afro-Asian Assault on the Civilizing-Mission, even though the focus is on the ups and downs of colonization in Asia and Africa. The essay looks at the motives behind colonizing these peoples, why some bought into the idea and how World War One changed everything for Europe, Asia and Africa in terms of colonization.

Because of the nature of the program, Frantz Fanon argues that decolonization cannot be achieved without violence. Hence, the author claims that “decolonization is always a violent phenomenon” (35). Decolonization is itself a violent program dues to the fact that colonies are created with violence. Because of “the violence which has ruled over the ordering of the colonial world, that same violence will be claimed and taken over by the native at the moment when he surges into the forbidden quarters” (40). Therefore, the authors claim that decolonization is violent event because these people have been colonized using force; therefore, when they decide to fight back, they will use the same force the same used to conquer them. Because “the agents