Professor Hollenberg
Anthropology 10
March 3, 2018 The Five Faces of Oppression Summary
Iris Young defines oppression in five faces: Exploitation, Marginalization, Powerlessness, Cultural Imperialism, and Violence.
Exploitation, a few people are wealthier and more capable than others. Exploitation is the difference between the wealth that workers create through labor and the wages that workers recieve The group that is liable to bring down class are powerless towards the upper class; however, the upper class society are reliant on them because that is the way they acquire their power. Exploitation is built into the economy; so that many bosses want to increase profits by lowering wages. Young also states that there is a big wealth
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Marginalization raises basic issues of justice and has increased dramatically throughout the wage system in the United States. Marginalization restrains some peoples potential outcomes.
Powerlessness is a relevant form of oppression because powerless people are required in this system with the goal that others can benefit. Powerlessness dives into the distinctions required with the division of work. In making a social division among experts and non-experts society has built up a status mark that stretches out past the work environment. Powerlessness is reflected in the absence of expert, status, and feeling of self that accompanies being included into the professional
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So many groups suffer the oppression of systematic violence. Everyday violence also reminds social groups of what happens when they resist oppressive conditions. There are many examples of the brutality of everyday life for so many of us. Young states “its not the particular acts of violence themselves, and it’s the social context surrounding them which makes them possible and acceptable.” stereotyping groups of people that make up the world is a main reason for violence being relevant and inflicted on certain groups. All in all, each face of oppression has its own importance in different ways but these three stated above are ones that over time build up and diminish ones self
Today in the United States of America people are both privileged and oppressed based on their diversity markers and social locations. These advantages and disadvantages are put in place by the people whom are in power, or otherwise known as the government and other leading officials. This is a major issue in today’s society that often tends to be masked by the many other issues within the country as well as by the privileged people. Many people who experience privilege tend to believe that privilege and oppression do not exist and that everyone has equal opportunity, but that is not the case privilege and oppression does exist and it can be seen every day in society. After a careful review of Dena Samuel’s “Matrix Model of Oppression and Privilege” I identified myself as rather privileged due to my social and diversity locations on her model.
The article “There Is No Hierarchy of Oppression” by Audre Lorde explains that fact that there are no factors or boundaries that stop oppression. Lorde mentions that she as people in order to tackle a problem we go by one issue first then the next. However, she explains that every issue is interconnected with each other for example, in her situation she is black and a lesbian but both come in to play in all the groups she pertains in. Therefore, in both the communities they see her as vice versa. Lorde tries to emphasize that neither of the aspects that make up her identity are less or more important but equally accepted. In conclusion, Lorde wants society to stop treating just one particular oppression as more important than another because that will not us to come together and fight oppression. Instead, we should treat all oppressions as one in order to achieve change.
Oppression is not always brought on in a violent and oppositional way, it can take on a peaceful and silent form; however regardless of the way oppression is introduced, it maintains the same characteristics of “imposing belief systems, values, laws and ways of ...
Andrea Smith’s “Heteropatriarchy and the Three Pillars of White Supremacy” introduces an alternative framework for the organization of women and people of color (Smith 67). Such framework is non-singular, contrasting the previous which have proven to be limiting to these groups (Smith 67). Through the discussion of the three pillars which are separate, but interrelated and heteropatriarchy within society Smith provides a helpful starting point for organizers to break from systems of oppression and ultimately deconstruct White supremacy (Smith 73).
In society, a racial hierarchy is constructed in the form of racism, where each race is classified, such as the whites being the most superior, whereas the blacks are perceived as inferior. Oppression takes formation in several ways and can limit a certain group from excelling in life, and suppressing their own cultural values. In the autobiography of Assata, Skakur depicts how oppression is present in every day society and its impact on Blacks.
The author argues that in order for oppression to be vitally explored, the factors that create oppression must be realized. Oppression gives material advantage to the oppressor. "All social relations have material consequences". The author argues that all identities must be considered interconnected.
The way I have come to understand what the Matrix of Privilege and Oppression means, is that everyone everywhere feels both privilege and oppression at the same time, and how much they feel of it depends on where they are on the scale of oppression and what position in society that they are in. This could mean that a Black man whom is judged by his skin color every day and it heavily oppressed in many ways, ends up getting into a college over a white man because of the school wanting to be a more diverse campus. The white man does not get judged by his skin color on a regular basis, but it did not work out well for him while applying to schools.
THE WAYS OF MEETING OPPRESSION IS AN ESSAY WRITTEN BY MARTIN LUTHER KING JR., ADDRESSING SEGREGATION THAT IS SPECIFICALLY DIRECTED TOWARD THE AFRICAN AMERICAN AUDIENCE. King’s primary audience is the African Americans, but also he has secondary audiences that he addresses, which are a combination of Christians or those who know of, or believe in the Christian views, as well as people in the legal system. He gives examples through his text that will demonstrate how he addresses mostly the African Americans, but also the various other audiences he is trying to reach to through his memorable speech. In his writing, he tells of three ways that they deal with oppression, and based on these he sends out a message to all who have read or heard his words. This message states what has been done in the past, as well as what should be done based on these past experiences. King chooses to speak to certain people through certain contexts and key phrases. In choosing certain phrases and also on how he states his words, he is successful in influencing all his audiences that he intended to persuade. The words that he carefully chose will tell how and why he wanted to focus on the primary and secondary audiences of his choice.
Violence causes a great deal of suffering and harm in the world today and yesterday (Cross 2013). Peace and conflict researchers are undeniably justified in their selection of inter and intra-state violence as objects of study because the social context for both the performance and understanding of violence is of central importance (Cross 2013). However it is surprisingly rare to find a definition of violence (Moore 2003). Thus uncertainty prevails as to whether violence is limited to physical abuse or includes verbal and psychological abuse (Moore 2003). Agreeing with Moore (2003), Galtung (1969) said it is not important to arrive at a definition of violence because there are obliviously many types of violence. Violence is not
2) Utilizing Glasberg and Shannon, Chapter 1 Introduction, and the works of Karl Marx explain to the reader the structures of oppression, in reference to power, politics and the state? Utilize the concepts of patriarch, racism and heteronormativity.
extended to ones beliefs and or actions. On the other hand, historical oppression is still
First we will talk about oppression through the use of dis-empowering, which was a direct correlation
Somewhere in America a parent is asking their child what they learned at school today, the child will most likely say that they didn’t learn much. It is sad to say that with today’s education system, this is true. The K-12 school system has oppressed students far more than it has liberated them, and this must change if America wants to produce members of society that actually have something to contribute. Students graduate high school having learned how to play the “game” of school leaving them grossly unprepared for college. Students should leave high school with a base of knowledge and strategies they can employ to succeed in college if that is where they wish to go, but instead they come to college knowing how to line up quietly and copy
Oppression is this and so much more than what Ben Harper wrote in his song. Oppression is an unjust or cruel exercise or action of power. Everyone experiences oppression at least once in his or her lives. We have only recently begun to fight the effects of oppression, to gain freedom in our world. Oppression divides us to keep us from maintaining our freedom, what little of it we have. Oppression is completely based on hatred and preys on you when you sleep, or when you are at your lowest point. It kicks you when you are down, and pushes you further down the rabbit’s hole. It forces you to fight when you are the weakest and will take your very last breath. It takes one problem and snowballs until you can not take it anymore. We can learn to fight oppression, if we only make ourselves aware.
“There is no perfect relationship. The idea that there is gets us into so much trouble.”-Maggie Reyes. Kate Chopin reacts to this certain idea that relationships in a marriage during the late 1800’s were a prison for women. Through the main protagonist of her story, Mrs. Mallard, the audience clearly exemplifies with what feelings she had during the process of her husbands assumed death. Chopin demonstrates in “The Story of an Hour” the oppression that women faced in marriage through the understandings of: forbidden joy of independence, the inherent burdens of marriage between men and women and how these two points help the audience to further understand the norms of this time.