Module 1 Assignment Understanding Oppression

Module 1 Assignment Understanding Oppression
Britany Conway-Chung
SSW 208 W23-Political Process
Megan Primeau
2023/03/20
Oppression: prolonged cruel or unjust treatment or control. Oppression has been
encircling us for many years. But society’s ability to build an understanding of many
perspectives will help activists, social work practitioners and society itself support the
marginalized groups with unheard perspectives. Oppression is related to
classification, class society and punishment. Oppression may be concealed or
unconcealed, depending on how it is rehearsed. Oppression refers to discrimination
when the injustice does not target or directly distress everyone in society but instead
targets or disproportionately impacts specific groups of people.
As a young Black female who is part of the ethnic community in the century I
find that I have to push myself twice as hard. There were multiple occasions where I
felt oppressed based on my ethnicity. One instance was back when I was in grade 4 I
was getting bullied by three white girls. They would push me around and say that I
could not sit with them because of the color of my skin. It went to a point they would
actually threaten to physically hurt me. I feel they had every intention to make me feel
less than them because they repeatedly said they did not like me due to my skin color.
There could have been many things that influenced them to act that way but I think a
couple factors are their parenting/upbringing, surroundings and knowledge. This
1
caused me to feel very insecure and emotional, as a young child who is starting to
understand that yes I do look different but that does not make me a terrible person. I
can say that it ruined parts of my social life and childhood. From this experience I
learned that there are some people in this world who still have that mindset that
ethnic people are below them and are passing on this belief, this value to the younger
generations. Furthermore I know it's not something we can change and we can’t force
people to view us as equal as them. But what we can do is educate the next generation
and they generations to come on the history of canada. Educate and teach them about
oppression, racism, systemic racism and show them how white people have treated
people of color and native american/indigenous people over the years because despite
the fact that segregation, slavery, and residential schools are gone racism,
discrimination, prejudice and hate crimes are still very much around in this century.
This is due to people still having that mindset of the older generation that was around
when ethnic people were being treated unequally.
As I said before you can oppress someone unconsciously or consciously. I don’t
know if you can call this oppression but it was a time where i discriminatory towards
white people and police. A couple years ago a friend of mine told me he wanted to be a
police officer and I responded with a rude comment with “all cops are racist” implying
2
that he was going to be a racist white cop. I didn't mean to make him feel as if I have
already seen what he will be like in the future and that all cops are the same. I know he
felt bad because I could see it on his face. He felt that I was judging him based on my
opinion about cops, which I was. My words caused him to try and prove me wrong, he
read about the history of ethnic people and their relationship with police. This
incident taught me that no person is the same in a certain group of people, they may
have the same job but they are not the same person.
In Becoming an Ally: “Breaking the Cycle of Oppression in People”, activist, author,
and educator Anne Bishop describes how an intermediate feature of being an ally is
recognizing and being aware of their own role in the society's system of oppression.
Bishop went to the extent providing a viewpoint to understanding the degree and the
different forms of oppression groups face on a continuous basis because of structural,
historical and political roots associated with marginalized groups and the impact
oppression has on the society.Typically, the oppressor uses the power; the oppressed
are exploited (Bishop, 2015,144). She brings an impactful perception in order to bring
forth a practice-based approach when acknowledging the issues associated with
racism and oppression. In Becoming an Ally, Bishop explains that oppression appears
when one group of people uses different forms of power to keep another group in a
3
powerless position. While I was reading Bishop’s book and filtering the information
given , it assisted me to critically understand the accurate causes of oppression. The
accurate cause of oppression is individual and institutional power that is surrounding
us that only impacts the individuals who have adjusted to that certain belief, that if
someone else comes from a higher group from in the class system then they believe
that others have a lower value than any other group because they do not automatically
fit their standard of living (Bishop, 2015, p. 65). In defiance of class is not just a major
factor of the imbalance of wealth, privilege and power; it is a factor of inequality. The
other forms of oppression help keep the hierarchy(a system or organization in which
people or groups are ranked one above the other according to status or authority) of
power in place; class is hierarchy. Bishop defined “Classism” as being identified by the
root word being class. Class is layered inside our society into different levels
corresponding to how much access people have to services, wealth and power inside
the society. Class is only the beginning and the ending product of all the other forms of
oppression. This is because class is the crucial structure of society, making it the sum
total of all the other inequalities (Bishop, 2015, p. 66). She also advised that we learn to
look at the world from a “constitutional” perspective, and place ourselves in
affiliation with one person, or various people of different ethnicities and abilities.
4
Some challenges I had was trying to describe oppression. I know what it is but I
struggled to explain it. What really helped was Anne Bishop's book that helped me
describe oppression. Maybe next time I could do some research on oppression to help
explain it. What I learned that surprised me was the how class and hierarchy still were
around in the 21st century and how they played a part in oppression.

Module 1 Assignment Understanding Oppression

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Module 1 Assignment Understanding Oppression

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Module 1 Assignment Understanding Oppression

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Module 1 Assignment Understanding Oppression

SSW 208 W23-Political Process

marginalized groups with unheard perspectives. Oppression is related to

classification, class society and punishment. Oppression may be concealed or

unconcealed, depending on how it is rehearsed. Oppression refers to discrimination

targets or disproportionately impacts specific groups of people.

couple factors are their parenting/upbringing, surroundings and knowledge. This

when ethnic people were being treated unequally.

As I said before you can oppress someone unconsciously or consciously. I don’t

In Becoming an Ally: “Breaking the Cycle of Oppression in People”, activist, author,

different forms of oppression groups face on a continuous basis because of structural,

forth a practice-based approach when acknowledging the issues associated with

given , it assisted me to critically understand the accurate causes of oppression. The

accurate cause of oppression is individual and institutional power that is surrounding

look at the world from a “constitutional” perspective, and place ourselves in

You might also like

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.