About Oppression and White Privilege

Recently, there have been a lot of cultural discussions about issues like oppression and white privilege. This post aims at clarifying some of those key concepts.

Where We Are

In the past few decades, the United States has made excellent strides in promoting civil rights, especially for People of Color and other minority groups. We had our first African-American president, and we increasingly see People of Color in our government. This is cause for celebration.

Nevertheless, we still have a long way to go to overcome the legacy of past injustices against minorities. We need to create a country where everyone feels safe and is treated with dignity, no matter the color of their skin.

 

Learning and caring about concepts like oppression and white privilege is one way we make our country great. (Picture by Tandem X Visuals, courtesy of Unsplash.)

In order to create such a country, it is important to understand the oppression that People of Color still face on a daily basis.

What is Oppression?

The word oppression can be confusing because the word often seems vague and hard to define. It is also sometimes hard to understand how oppression differs from other kinds of mistreatment people endure.

Despite these difficulties, it is an important word to understand because it describes a very specific type of mistreatment certain people experience. Namely, it is mistreatment which results from certain political and social situations.

Furthermore, oppression is also directly linked to racism. So, when we understand oppression, we are better able to combat it and racism as well.

Some preliminary Ideas

First, we should note that oppression is not the same as general mistreatment. Sometimes people mistreat other people in ways that are not oppression.

For example, driving with road rage, being rude to someone in the grocery store, ignoring people in distress, or making fun of someone’s clothing are all an example of mistreatment. They do not, however, necessarily constitute oppression. (This does not diminish their injustice or evil, which I will address later.)

What Constitutes Oppression?

We use the word oppression to describe a very specific type of harm: the harm that occurs because of social and political power imbalances. Oppression almost always refers to power exercised by authorities or dominant groups over people with less power and social status.

It is important that we describe this kind of harm with a specific word—oppression. This harm is different and often more insidious than general everyday mistreatment. To help us understand this, it is important to understand the concept of power imbalances in society.

Thinking about Power Imbalances

A power imbalance is a social and political relationship in which one group of people has significantly more political, legal, and social power than another group.

Sometimes power imbalances are natural and temporary and are for the sake of nurturing, training, and apprenticeship. For example, parents possess more power than children, and teachers have more power than students.

Some Power Imbalances are Natural

These power imbalances exist temporarily so that the parent or the teacher can train the child to become a confident, autonomous adult.

Photos courtesy of Unsplash

Natural power imbalances are not usually oppressive. Problems only arise in these types of relationships when authority figures misuse their power (such as to benefit themselves). They especially become a problem if the authority figure fails to realize that the imbalance is temporary and for the sake of training the child.

Inherently Oppressive Power Imbalances

There are other power imbalances, however, that are inherently oppressive and always dangerous. These power imbalances develop in a society when one group gains more political, legal, and social power. They might do this through unjust war, unjust wealth acquisition,  and prejudice.

These kinds of power imbalances must be corrected as quickly as possible. If left unchecked, it is very common for the dominant group to use their power consciously or unconsciously to harm people in the oppressed groups. They might do this by depriving them of rights, dignity, property, and even their very life.

Situations like this always devolve into slavery, abuse, human rights violations, or genocides.

Photo by the British Library, courtesy of Unsplash

Unjust Power Imbalances Encourage Oppression and Racism

One of the insidious things about unjust power imbalances is that they inherently encourage aggression, greed, and prejudice.

People with more power benefit from the imbalance and so, consciously or unconsciously, they do all they can to protect their position of power.

False Narratives

This motivates them to develop elaborate false narratives about why people with less power are weaker, inferior, immoral, lazy, or even dangerous.

It is important to note that even people who are normally very intelligent, moral, and upstanding people can develop these kinds of narratives. The psychological pull towards maintaining one’s power is very strong. This leads to further problems like oppression and racism.

Unjust Power Imbalances in the U.S.

For instance, people in the U.S. who wanted to perpetuate the institution of slavery developed elaborate narratives about how African-Americans were less intelligent or less capable of leadership.

They made up stories about how God had ordained white people to rule the world—narratives which were all, of course, patently false. One of the greatest tragedies of slavery is that many Christians and other “good folk” believed and perpetuated these myths.[1]

Having made the distinction between oppression[2] and mistreatment, I would like to address several questions about oppression that I often hear people ask.

The United States has ended slavery and made great strides in civil rights. Does oppression still occur here?

We should note that power imbalances still exist in the United States, and so we should still expect to see instances of oppression in the United States, especially when these power imbalances are not corrected.

We have minority populations in the United which include People of Color, people with disabilities, and the LGTBQ community, among others.

Racism and Stereotypes Still Exist

There are a lot of people who harbor a great deal of racism, stereotypes, ignorance, and misconceptions about these minority groups.

We still frequently see people in power (who harbor ill-will against these groups) actively work to deprive them of fair treatment and basic rights. This is oppression.

Women and Oppression

As another example, women are not usually considered to be a minority group, but many women have historically suffered oppressive situations.

For example, women historically have born the lion’s share of the responsibility for raising children—often an extremely large number of children.

In the past women had less access to modern amenities (i.e. washing machines, refrigerators, etc.). Tending to their very large families (and the related pregnancy, nursing, meal preparation, and laundry) often consumed all of women’s time.

Decreased Social Mobility

This prevented them from pursuing higher education, working outside of the home, and participating in the military, opportunities which built their social mobility and  political power.

Women carrying a community latrine in 17th century colonial Virginia. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

These conditions were not unjust or immoral in themselves. However, they certainly led to a power imbalance between men and women. In some situations, men consciously and unconsciously exploited this power over women.

Some people still do this today.[3] For instance, when men with political power insult women’s appearance or intelligence or natural female bodily processes (like menstruation or nursing), this is an example of men exploiting historical power imbalances.

Here is another example of oppression that still exists in the U.S. today.

Several research studies conducted on views of women in the workplace. They found that when people are given the same resume, one with a man’s name on it and one with a woman’s name on it, people rate the “man” as the most qualified candidate, even though the resumes are the same.

Two: Does oppression occur only within groups, or can it also occur between two people in every day relationships?

The word oppression is most often used to describe situations in which a majority group uses power unjustly to harm a minority group. However, oppression can also exist between individual people. For example, if a white person uses his or her power to emotionally and psychologically harm a Person of Color, this would be an example of oppression.

For example, a friend of mine, who is an African-American woman, was walking down the street one day, and a guy drove by and called her the N word.

The President

In addition, recently the President Trump told four congress women with whom he disagreed, all Women of Color, that they should “go back to their own country”.

Three out of the four women were born in the U.S. and are U.S. citizens, just like the President. The fourth one, Ilhan Omar, fled with her family from a bloody civil war in Somalia.

Ilhan Omar’s Family were Refugees

They sought refugee status in the U.S. after four years in a refugee camp and were eventually granted asylum and full citizenship to the U.S.  Omar became a U.S. citizen in 2000 when she was 17.

You can read more about the incident with the President and these four women here and here.

Both of these are an example of one person oppressing another person, which reflects larger social patterns of oppression.

Three: Can a person who is a member of a majority group (like a white person in the U.S.) be oppressed?

This is a tricky question to answer because most of us simultaneously belong to multiple social groups, some of which may be minority groups that suffer from political power imbalances and some of which may not.

For instance, let’s consider a white woman living in the U.S. As a white person, she is a part of a majority group with the most power.  However, women have historically been an oppressed group because in the past they have been deprived of rights like voting and education.

Women and Oppression

Therefore, she may suffer oppression, not because of being white, but because of being a woman.

Or let’s consider a white man in the U.S. who is from Appalachia. The Appalachian community has suffered from power imbalances because of land exploitation, stereotyping, and  other issues. Therefore, this man could be oppressed, not because he is white, but because he is from Appalachia.

A coal miner in Appalachia in 1946. Photo courtesy of Unsplash.

Groups Within Groups

Thus, a person in a majority group can be oppressed, not because of their membership in the majority group but because of their simultaneous membership in other minority groups.

For oppression to occur, people must have their rights and dignity stolen from them through political power, and it is very hard for minority groups in a society to do this.

We should note that while people in majority groups cannot usually be oppressed in the technical sense of the term, they can most certainly be mistreated. (See next question.)

Four: Can people in majority groups be mistreated?

Of course.

People in majority groups can be demeaned, insulted, abused, robbed, beaten, lied to, kidnapped, mocked, and treated in all other manner of horrible ways. They cannot technically be oppressed (specifically as a person of a majority group) because they don’t suffer from a political power imbalance.

We Should Still Care

This does not mean, however, that their mistreatment doesn’t matter or that we shouldn’t care about it.

For example, if a white male is slandered and beaten by people who hate him, this may not be an example of oppression, technically speaking. It is, however, most certainly an example of injustice, vicious behavior, and violence.

It is immoral, and we should all be horrified and work to bring him justice if we can.

Five: What is white privilege?

White privilege is a type of political and social power that white people have just because they are white. They can use this power for good or for ill.

To help illustrate white privilege, let me tell a brief story about an African-American friend of mine, used with her permission. Some white friends of hers went on vacation and asked my friend if she would house sit for them. My friend wanted to help out her friends, but she was apprehensive to do so.

My Friend’s Experience

She had had several African-American friends and family members who had been interrogated by the police, not because they were doing anything wrong. It occurred simply because they were walking around in predominantly white neighborhoods.

My black friend was afraid that if someone saw her walking out of a white person’s house in a white neighborhood that they would call the police on her, even though she has never been in trouble with the police.

Different Rules for Different Racial Groups

I have had several other African-American friends express fear of the police pulling them over, even though they have never broken any laws or been in trouble of any sort.

They were afraid of how they would be treated or that they might even be put in jail for a crime they didn’t commit or even shot. Most of them have friends or family members who have faced this kind of mistreatment.

Meanwhile, I have never once in my life feared that I would get in trouble with the police for visiting a friend’s house while they are on vacation or for walking down a street in a neighborhood where I don’t live. (In fact, I walk all the time and do this quite frequently.)

I have also never had strangers call me a derogatory ethnic slur. And, I have never been afraid of the police pulling me over or shooting me.

White Privilege

That is because I have white privilege. And I am not a bad person for having white privilege. I do not have control over the world I was born into, but I do have control over the world I help to create. Being a white person in the United States means I do not have to deal with people scrutinizing me, stereotyping me, or insulting or harming me because of my skin color.

This gives me power and privilege.

Use Your Privilege for Good

It is the power and privilege of being a member in the dominant social group that sets the norms, values, and customs of our country and has done so for hundreds of years. I need to use this power for good. Writing this post is one way I do that.

If you would like to read a story about some friends of mine using their white privilege to help combat oppression and racism, you might like this post.

You might also like to read this post about white privilege:
Should White People Feel Ashamed of White Privilege?

Systemic Racism and the Candace Owens Video

Six: How are oppression and racism related?

Racism is a type of oppression. When white people and political leaders (like the President), threaten, or demean People of Color, they are using their white privilege to bully and silence minority groups.

When white people do this, they are in essence saying, “You are different from me because of the color of your skin, and you do not deserve the same respect as me.” This is an expression of racism. You can read more about this here.

Seven: Why should we care about oppression and racism?

There are many reasons we should care about oppression and racism, but I will focus on three briefly.

First, when we passively or actively condone oppression and racism, we open the door for ourselves and the people we love to suffer oppression because we communicate that “Oppression and racism are okay.” So, every time we oppress others, we actually oppress ourselves and the people we love, and we make the world less safe for us and others. (It would be the same if we started to condone robbery or rape.)

Degrading U.S. Values

Second, when we passively or actively condone oppression or racism, we degrade the best values of the United States. The U.S. is not a perfect country, but in our best moments, we have always championed the rights of every human being–especially the weak, the powerless, and the oppressed.

We Cannot Passively Condone Oppression

When we passively or actively condone oppression, we degrade the best values of our country and make it decidedly Un-Great again.

Third, when we passively or actively condone oppression or racism, we open the doors for greater acts of violence and misery to occur. All genocides, holocausts, and other gross human rights violations began by unchecked smaller acts of oppression that snowballed.

It Could Happen Again

We would be ignorant if we think that these types of atrocities cannot happen in the United States. They have happened before (i.e. Japanese internment camps in World War II). They are more likely to reoccur when we permit oppressive attitudes and behaviors to go unchecked.

Auschwitz in Poland. Photo by Karsten Winegeart, courtesy of Unsplash.

One of the most important parts of working for justice in the world is working to create a world where every human being is treated with dignity. Identifying and stopping oppression is one of the best ways to do this.

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If you enjoyed this post, please consider sharing on social media.

You might also enjoy this post:

Why I Love the U.S., and I *Don’t* Think It is the Greatest Country in the World (and This is True Patriotism)

If you would like to read more about oppression, how it develops, and its various expressions, I recommend these books.

Hannah Arendt–Eichmann in Jerusalem

W.E.B. DuBois–The Souls of Black Folk

Paulo Freire–Pedagogy of the Oppressed

bell hooks–Men, Masculinity, and Love: The Will to Change

Cornwell West–Prophesy Deliverance

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Footnotes

[1] Of course, many Christians also fought to abolish slavery. For instance, Quakers (a Christian denomination) were on the front lines of the abolition movement.

[2] In Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Freire often uses the word dehumanization to refer to conditions of oppression. Dehumanization occurs when people steal other people’s rights to reflect on the world, name it, and transform it for greater humanization. Dehumanization always exists in situations of oppression.

Eichmann in Jerusalem

See Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem. It contains a powerful and terrifying exploration of how every day average people like you and me can become a part of oppressive and deadly power imbalances.

[3] This is certainly not a criticism of women who choose to stay at home or who forgo, for instance, higher education. Rather, this is a criticism of situations in which women did not have the choice in the past to do these things. This lack of choice often lead to significant social power imbalances.