Preview

The Importance Of Oppression

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
523 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Importance Of Oppression
I am tired. If mankind is wise then it should be tired as well. My exhaustion derives from the endless conflicts the human race has faced. Often throughout history we have faced conflicts with carrying a big stick and wars. The problem with those approaches is that the little that they attempt to solve is only effective in situations where threats are tangible. In other words, when the enemy has a face. When it comes to inequality based on genders, races, and social constructs, we have nobody to blame. There is no villain that our heroes can eliminate resulting in the end of the problem. Instead invoking social changes takes time and effort faced by much adversity from resistance to change.
As a woman of color and member of the LGBT+ community, I have experienced prejudice in various, intimate forms. As patriotic as I am, I cannot help but feel sorrow at the injustices in our society. I possess hope for the future that conditions will better for all peoples in our country. My conviction is that the first step to acquiring social justice is erasing ignorance. Importance lies in recognizing the signs of institutionalized injustice. In relation to the well known idiom "ignorance is bliss," the bliss of the ignorant rests upon the unjust treatment of those suffering oppression. On the other hand, the oppressed may also be ignorant of their oppression as a deliberate means to keep them oppressed when they could be
…show more content…
I identify as independent and individualistic. These qualities allow me to view and analyze situations on my own without intruding influences from opinions of others in addition to granting me freedom from fear from defying the general order of things if they are not just. Moreover, I possess leadership in my abilities to influence and assist others as well as in paving my own path. All conflicts regardless of complexity render easier to solve with proper

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    We refer to basic human rights like the freedom of speech and association, liberty, and equal treatment in court as civil rights, because they are fundamental rights that each and every citizen should not be denied on the basis of their sex, race, or religious belief. In the last one-hundred years we, as a human population, have seen many acts of discrimination against our civil rights on a large scale. In Kathryn Stockett’s novel, “The Help” one of those times were brought into light, the African-American Civil Rights Movement. Many say that members of the Lesbian, Gay, Transgendered, and Bisexual (LGBT) community today experience similar discrimination to the black experience of Southern U.S in the 1960’s because of the fight for civil rights, the fact that members are shunned by their area, and how people actively work against the cause that they try to establish.…

    • 1112 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    It is nearly impossible to avoid inheriting at least some of the racial, gender, and sexual-orientation biases that are inevitable within a society that privileges Whites, men and heterosexuals. Sue (2010) explains that racism exists on a continuum of conscious awareness. While biases can be displayed overtly through conscious and deliberate acts of discrimination, bias is more likely to occur in the form of unconscious, unintentional, and subtle discriminatory behaviours. Sue (2010) argues that this ambiguity makes microaggressions more harmful to the well-being and self-esteem of victims than overt discrimination. Victims must continually question, react to and interpret the meaning of these experiences on a daily basis (Sue,…

    • 965 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    This ignorance creates a lack of compassion for oppressed groups and it does not motivate privileged people to join in the fight for true equality. The consequences for many individuals still exist currently within the concealing a life concerned in “double…

    • 3597 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Bell Hooks Research Paper

    • 644 Words
    • 3 Pages

    We live in a world where there are numerous discriminations: race, religion, sex, age, or sexual orientation. bell hooks has eloquently explained multiple reasons why the black population is discriminated against in an educational setting, “...most white folks are rarely, if ever, in a situation where they must listen to black women lecture to them.” (hooks, 31) Daily we hear about the killings of transsexual men and women, as well as multiple examinations talking about men who receive more money then women in the workplace for the same job. Carl Grant intelligently said, “Another factor stimulating the change is the acceptance of the importance of social cultural factors in learning and the movement toward challenging traditional assumptions and envisioning multiple possibilities for change.” (Grant, 1) The discrimination I’m talking about most people don’t understand or even see,…

    • 644 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Malcolm X once warned of the power of the media, “societal oppression” and its ramifications. Ignominiously, within today's society young people live up to labels handed to them, and wear them as badges of honour, suffer poverty, oppression within the education and penal system, and are constantly fighting for status in a very bigoted society, where the poor get poorer and the rich get richer. The author argues that a chauvinistic society, the lack of culpability, uninspiring media reporting which remain relentless, and the antagonistic systems which remain aloof to socially excluded young people, have contributed to the rise of the ”new aged gangs”, thus creating a “them and us” culture. A culture with the ability to become a social norm.…

    • 153 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Oppression is a significant issue that has been growing in discourse as of late. As time progresses, the way people are treated and the opinions they hold change. When there is a group of people who have their rights changed, it will cause other groups to believe they are being cheated out of chances the privileges those people are allowed access to. While this may be accurate in rare cases, it is also difficult to argue strongly on the side of the people who have been, and still are considered to be in positions of power. Discrimination is an entirely different realm than systematic oppression, and people who are in these positions of power would simply not be able to experience these things. Examples that are becoming widely known to the…

    • 1539 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    System Of Oppression

    • 310 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Great response Quinne! You have provided some interesting reflections on the idea of whiteness. Your statement “racism is a system of oppression” is extremely true. We live in a world where societal inequalities exist and where races are discriminated against, not treated fairly, and oppressed. In addition, there are also groups of people who are advantaged and receive benefits and privileges that are unearned and unfair. Wouldn’t life be great if we valued and respected people regardless of identities such as gender, race, age, religion, and nationality? In this dream world, everyone would have equitable access to resources and opportunities and would be able to live out their full potential. Sadly, this is the not the case resulting…

    • 310 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This was the first room that we stepped in. The first people that entered were only people wearing UCM clothing. Those people stood in a triangle and everyone else came in behind them. The people in the triangle were handed balls of paper and the people in the back had to find one already on the floor. Everyone was then told to throw their paper ball into a plastic bin. A majority of people in the triangle made the shot into the plastic bin. This exercise was an example of privilege for people who already lived in America and newer immigrants who came and didn’t have certain rights because of that. This was a very interesting exercise.…

    • 780 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    A strong, intelligent man, Martin Luther King Jr., once said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter,” and what mattered 50 years ago, was finding a sense of equality in the world. That each person could feel as if they were all equal to one another, without feeling misplaced, but at home. King took a stand for people too scared to let their words be heard, taking on the walls that stood between segregation and equal rights. His strong words gave a sense of realization, that all people, black or white should have equal rights, and feel just as safe and free as all of the others. After a long fight for equality in the world, racial discrimination is still hiding in the shadows, causing…

    • 1212 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    ? As a culturally grounded social worker, I know there are major obstacles to equality that LGBT Americans still face. For instance, there are no laws to protect queer from being bully. Plus, individuals could still become fire, merely for being who they are; gay or lesbian. Moreover, sexual orientation and gender identity still aren't protected under the hate crime statutes of more than 20 states. Also, same-sex parents struggle for the custody rights that heterosexuals are automatically granted and the list goes on. There is yet, much injustice, discrimination against L.G.B.T.B community and my job as a social worker is to fight the injustice and discrimination.…

    • 107 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Oppressed people deal with their oppression in three characteristic ways. One way is acquiescence: the oppressed resign themselves to their doom. They tacitly adjust themselves to oppression and thereby become conditioned to it. In every movement toward freedom some of the oppressed prefer to remain oppressed. Almost 2800 years ago Moses set out to lead the children of Israel from the slavery of Egypt to the freedom of the Promised Land. He soon discovered that slaves do not always welcome their deliverers. They become accustomed to being slaves. They would rather bear those ills they have, as Shakespeare pointed out, than flee to others that they know not of. They prefer the "fleshpots of Egypt" to the ordeals of emancipation.…

    • 986 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The fourth issue is protest. Many people never believed they are worthy. They did their best to find anything to be good at but they failed then all of a sudden they found a golden opportunity to feel worthy. Those people go to protests in order to build the identity they were always searching for and to feel worthy. Protesting is the way to express words and actions regarding a specific issue. “Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever,” claims Martin Luther King Jr. King relates the belief that all those who have been oppressed eventually yearn for freedom and will act upon that desire. Those words still have significance for many people in the second decade of the 21st century. As people fight, claw, protest and petition their legislators…

    • 184 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “The Ways of Meeting Oppression”, an excerpt from a speech given by Dr. Martin Luther King during the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Dr. King explains that the oppressed deal with oppression in one of three ways; acceptance, the use of physical force and hostility, and non violent resistance. He begins that through acceptance, people succumb to their fates as they are either exhausted and have given up fighting, or they have become accustomed to their circumstances and see no need for change. He elaborates that through acceptance, the oppressed are indeed the cause of their own oppression. Dr. King demonstrates that acceptance is allowing and proving one’s own inferiority while enabling and…

    • 403 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Oppression In 1984

    • 568 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The novel 1984 by George Orwell highlights how the government uses multiple different tools in order to oppress their citizens, one of them being grammar and language. The concept of “Newspeak” is made to completely erase the ability to form rebellious and contrasting ideologies to the Party. The ultimate goal of Newspeak is to ensure even the possibility of rebellious thought is impossible since there are no words to formulate it. By forcing Newspeak on Oceania, the Party silences their subjects in order to maintain complete and utter control over them. Disregarding the risks of speaking out against the Party, the people of Oceania do not even have the ability to think for themselves Their words…

    • 568 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Overcoming Oppression

    • 910 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Oppression can affect people in many different ways, however their outlook on life can help to overcome harassment and become liberated once again. Those with positive attitudes to their life will find it easier to break free from oppression, rather than being negative and struggling to find freedom. A positive attitude has shown to fight back against oppression on many occasions and be successful in finding release from the pain of being burdened by oppressors. A negative attitude, however, has proven to be a very ineffective way of discovering freedom from the captivity of being an oppression victim. Evidence has shown the unsuccessfulness a negative outlook can bring to the escape of oppression. A negative outlook brings nothing but more problems and grief for someone searching for liberty. Although people can have positive and negative outlooks on life, one can be faced with the problem of not having any options, or plan of escape. A victim of oppression may find themselves under such serious domination, that no matter how positive or negative their outlook is, oppression will still crush them until they can try no more to find themselves a free being.…

    • 910 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays