Oppression In America

In this course we learned about many different types of oppression, from the time America was first “discovered” and the discoverers began oppressing the Indians, to slavery, to the oppression of the mentally handicapped, all the way to more “modern” times in schools were students are being oppressed.

After I read the article, I had to sit back and digest the material for an entire day. The article force me to do some soul searching regarding my position on power, privilege, and oppression. Have I been so oblivious to my surroundings? I quickly thought about the six core values of social work: service, social justice, dignity and worth, importance of human relationships, integrity, & competence. Will I be able to help others; because like Spencer (2008) I took somethings in life for granted? It was ironic when I was reading the article that Martin Luther King Jr, Desmond Tutu, and Nelson Mandella came to mine. They all fought for the injustice and sacrificed much to change the minds of the one in the position of power.

Imagine living in a world that consistently devalues your existence and is heavily populated with individuals who are quick to use and abuse your resources, but are slow to share the wealth that is accumulated from those resources. How would you feel? Unfortunately, certain populations do not have to visualize the disparity that is pictured above. This is because inequity is one of the most demoralizing social issues that plague America today. The worst thing about inequity is the fact that it continues to disproportionately burden individuals who are categorize as being minority in today’s society.

History often repeats itself. Is this because Humans are creatures of habit or because of something else? Often times, the things people do, often repeat every year. Sometimes you may go to the movie theater on the same day for two, maybe three, years in a row, and sometimes more. This is also the case with all of our holidays as well; Christmas and Thanksgiving, as well as Independence Day, are all on the same day every year. This is all evident when discussing oppression in the United States against groups of people with certain beliefs and different cultures such as; the Native Americans, African American Slaves/Segregation, and LGBTQ rights supporters. Oppression against people and groups including; the Native Americans, African Americans, and LGBTQ supporters, has been justified in the United States through dehumanization and religion.

“The United States of America has a reputation as a beacon of freedom and diversity from the colonial period of its history” (American Freedom). Oppression is at the root of many of the most serious conflicts in the world today. But before oppression could be a part of the world today, it had to be a part of history. Many colonists that lived in the New England colonists came to America to practice their own religion. Wealthy colonists copied British styles in clothes, dancing and etiquette.

Oppression has change in history in the following ways: lower class people are treated different than higher class, people are discriminated by their race, and minorities knows how each class behave. People should not be obligated to change their lifestyle only because they are oppressing them to change for good. Each one of us should have freedom of what they want to do and enjoy life by not being forced to or feeling less than others

In the raw and graphical important events told to us in the novel Always Running by Luis J. Rodriguez, the events show us the way systematic oppression affects the life’s of minorities, but especially those of the community of the main character Chin. Chin is living through systematic oppression and feeling the effects of systematic oppression on his everyday life and to that of his community. Chin, experiences the oppression that the government created in order to oppress communities of certain appearances. We also get to understand his feelings of hatred towards the United States legal system because of how unfair it was towards minorities. His hatred comes from the abusive actions police committed by using their power of the law to make

I will be writing about the oppression of Middle Eastern people in America. They can come from Egypt all the way to Iran, and they make their home in America. When Terrorism became a more talked about problem, fear started to trickle out. And with fear there comes a lot of anger about what we don’t understand. America is predominately a Christian nation and the sects that follow that belief system, and therefore Americans in general have more of a bias view to those religions. This is what makes it hard for Middle Eastern people to live here with this oppressive attitude. What doesn’t help is how the only news that is told to Americans deals with wars and suicide bombings, it creates a view that people from the Middle East are actually dangerous and have ideas that threaten Americans. In reality, those are the talked about topics because they are flashy and make people want to read about it.

“The United States of America has a reputation as a beacon of freedom and diversity from the colonial period of its history” (American Freedom). Oppression is at the root of many of the most serious conflicts in the world. Before oppression could be a part of the world today, it had to be a part of history.

Oppression and discrimination has plagued our society since early times. As a collective society one would think that over time oppression and discrimination would turn into acceptance and equality. Conversely, our society has taken sluggish steps towards diversity, acceptance and equality. Our society is focused on labeling people and putting them into limiting boxes. Oppression occurs across various groups of people based on gender, sex, race, religion, and disability. Members of these diverse groups are discriminated among work places, schools, and other places. Work places and schools promote diversity and non-discrimination, however little seems to be practiced. Oppression across generation leaves damaging consequences hindering society in the growth towards a more accepting environment.

This research paper will outline the causes and traits of oppression in America. Dynamics such as the social, historical, and psychological systems that serve as vessels of oppression will be addressed. Using academic research, the goal for this essay will be to discuss the characteristics of oppression and how those characteristics are connected to its origin. The research will develop major themes that will serve to define agents, including classism, discrimination, and the intersectionality of different types of oppression. Discussions on strategies for addressing and ending the current oppression in America and recommendations for the future will be highlighted as well.

Oppression suppresses individuals or groups using power to maintain what can be seen as social place within a society. Keeping groups or individuals at a level where their rights are restricted below those of the suppressor due to things such as race or sex. Enforcing inequalities upon those who have none or limited means to fight for equality. Oppression keeps people within a restricted existence where they are unable to improve their situation due to restrictions imposed by the oppressor.

It’s important to acknowledge the historical context when understanding oppression because oppression always has its roots somewhere; no one is oppressed just because. Marginalization of minority groups in the past, and even today, has a purpose—not necessarily a good purpose, though. The purpose was usually for power; majority groups wanted to be the standard for good, resulting in the dehumanization of minority groups. Therefore, to understand fully why the oppression still stands today, it’s important to look back on how it started. That way, we can see why it still persists in our society; is its original purpose still being pursued but in a less physical way like in the past? And, is it still affecting the same people today, even to a

“America was conducting business as usual, but others were joining the game.” (Zakaria, 221). All this time we thought we were on top, we were actually slowly becoming less and less of leader and more a bystander as the rest of the world is slowly rising around us. Zakaria shows in that quote that as America has been continuing business like always, and because of this we have failed to realize our standing with the world around us. In the book The Post-American World, Zakaria shows us the challenges that America faces today. I believe the United States is most affected by our ignorance, competition, and worldly participation.

I am stating the Five Faces of Oppression based on my understand after reading Shaw & Lee. The first face is Exploitation. Exploitation is, “A process that transfer the results of labor of one social group to benefit another.” (Shaw&Lee, p.53.) An example of exploitation is sweat shops. Children in many parts of the world are making clothing items such as Nike for pennies a day. While these children are underpaid people who aren’t sweat shop workers’ pay multiple dollars for the items made. Marginalization is the next face, Margination is described as, “The expulsion of an entire group from useful participation in social life.” (Shaw&Lee, p.53.) A group that fits this category are the homeless. Homeless people were unable to pay their bills therefore, they’re without a home. Powerlessness comes next and is described as, “lack of respectability.” (Shaw&Lee, p.53.) An example of this would be minority groups. In the media you see many videos of white people disrespecting minorities for being “different.” Cultural Imperialism is the fourth face. Cultural Imperialism is, “Recognizing the dominant group experience and culture as the norm.” (Shaw&Lee, p.53.) An example of this is white culture in America. In America it’s the norm for mothers to be stay at home moms while the husband is the sole bread winner for the family. The last face of oppression is violence. Violence is described as, “Members of a subordinate group who live with the threat of violence.” (Shaw&Lee, p.53.) Transgender individuals live with a lot of fear and violence. Many people don’t understand or support the trans community and tend to thing in order to solve the “problem” they must hurt and kill trans individuals. Iris Young said described the acts as “Using people’s labors to produce profit while not compensating them fairly.”