Social Justice: The Three Levels Of Oppression

explicitly explains that there are five specific factors of oppression that affect many people in their day to day lives. Those five faces are exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and violence. Exploitation is the act towards the usage of labor of a specific social group to benefit another group. Marginalization is commonly the exclusion of people of a third world such as racially marked groups, unemployed, disabled, elderly, etc. Powerlessness is the concept how people of power often profit from the labor of others. Cultural imperialism is the idea of a dominant group becoming a norm of society thus making non-dominant groups behaviors as

Oppression is the “systematically related pressures” that set barriers for certain people (Frye 7). It is the exploitation and the marginalization of subordinate groups. According to Iris Young 's "Five Faces of Oppression", oppression is also the disdain and powerlessness of these groups. Cultural imperialism creates stereotypes for these people and makes them the "other" for straying from the cultural norm. To less “dominant” and oppressed groups, violence is somehow socially permitted against them because they are the deviants of society (Young 53). In our society, the stigma of disability has been socially constructed and

First, I will start this paper with the definition of oppression given by Webster Dictionary and also by the social work dictionary. Then, we have that Webster Dictionary defines oppression such as "Unjust or cruel exercise of authority or power especially by the imposition of burdens; the condition of being weighed down; an act of pressing

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.

Oppression can be seen all over the world, in almost any culture, during almost any time during history. Oppression can happen to anyone, but it usually happens to minority racial or social groups. Society and its institutions often reinforce and stand by this oppression. Racism is very prevalent in America even to this day, though many claim we have overcome our oppressive history. Addressing this oppression can be incredibly difficult, not only for those being oppressed, but also for those who want to stand up for those groups. While it may be difficult to address oppressive structures, it is not impossible. Oppression can control one’s life and take a toll on their well being. Addressing oppressive structures can only happen when people or a group of people are able to make it their ultimate concern, and then come together as one to fight back.

Whenever I hear about a type of oppression in the news whether the wage gap between men and women, racism in terms of police brutality or the lack of access to education of lower class citizens they are always described as separate forms of oppression not directly connecting to each other. But Spelman raises a thought provoking idea that maybe all of these types of oppression are completely connected. Maybe the only way to fully stop this oppression is to stop seeing them as separate entities but instead as one big intertwined problem. We could tackle one big problem with one big effort instead of attacking many different little forms of oppression with small efforts. Maybe this is the key to finally breaking down the walls of oppression that have been ruling this country for so many

In our Society, we deal with many form of oppression in our daily lives. Unfortunately, different groups of people are more oppressed than others. Oppression is the unjust treatment of a group of people. I believe, our government is a major culprit as they are responsible for oppressing most of society. This involves many groups, such as single mothers, the working class, African Americans, gays and lesbians. In my paper, my personal views will be addressed incorporating ideas from several readings pertaining to different forms of oppression. A summarization of each article will be provided as well.

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.

When working to determine the causes of oppression, one must first establish a definition of the word. Oppression can be perceived as being a broad, which can lead to disempowerment of the term. For the purposes of this paper, oppression is defined through the lens of both institutional and internalized oppression. Institutional oppression is define as the occurrence of established laws, customs, and practices systematically reflecting and producing inequities based on one’s membership in targeted social identity groups (Cheney, 2012). In regards to institutional oppression, oppressive consequences such as classism, prejudice and discrimination are typically attributed to institutional laws, customs, or practices. Internalized oppression is internalized oppression is the

“Five Faces of Oppression” by Iris M. Young tries to create an idea that we can critique the reality and stages of oppression of different groups. She argues that oppression is structural in the sense that injustices arise from systematic everyday activities, and not from policies or how people act. Since oppression is systematically reproduced and thus ingrained into culture, politics and economics, therefore it cannot be simply removed from our society. She separates the condition of oppression into five different forms: exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and violence. Young states that exploitation is where oppression occurs in the transfer of one social group’s products of labor to benefit the wealthier class. She also argues that women are also exploited to through this from of

There are two types of people, the oppressors and the oppressed. Since the beginning of time oppressors have knocked down others who they believed were lesser than themselves creating inequality and alienation amongst humans. How will the oppressed overcome oppression and change their situation? The key to successfully overcoming oppression is a pedagogy with the oppressed.

Though the concept of social injustice is universal in nature, the experience varies with each person. Factors like a person’ race, or gender can further influence the severity of the injustice; victims caught in the overlap between discriminations often go unrecognized by the law and society. Many people recognize the names Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Tamir Rice as African Americans who were murdered by local police. But names like Michelle Cusseaux, Tanish Anderson, and Meagan Hockaday often receive less feedback even though they are also murdered African Americans. The only distinction between the sets of names is gender. Even within racial injustice, discrimination is present between genders as some cases get national

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.”

The aim of this essay is to address the problem of inequality and oppression through three separate texts, The Second Sex, The Death of the Profane and Killing Rage. The Second Sex focuses on the woman and her role compared to man. The Death of the Profane and Killing Rage are both texts that describe experiences about the constant racism felt by blacks. To thoroughly examine these texts and how they are related to oppression and inequality it is important to first define what each mean. Oppression and inequality each have different definitions but they go hand in hand. Oppression is the state of being subject to prolonged unjust treatment. While inequality is defined as lacking equality, equality is the state of being equal especially in status,

The system of oppression is still there whether I like it or not, and the benefits I receive from it are real. I think that the reason why this excerpt felt so important to me was because when I first read it, I disagreed and subconsciously tried to ignore its message. I think the reason why I did this was because I believed that because I wasn’t racist or sexist, I didn’t have to change because I wasn’t personally hurting anyone. I didn’t want to feel guilty, therefore I was inclined to deny the reading. However, it stayed stuck in the back of my mind for a couple of days, and when I came back to it to do a quick review before class, I realized that what the reading was conveying was that there is a lot I can do to change in order to be a better ally, and that I should start by reaching out more to the underprivileged. While I have already done this through IDP, I think that a big step for me would be to talk to a target outside of