Faces of Oppression

Omar Osbourne
Diversity and Social

The faces of oppression are the ways we act and things we do to keep people down. These ways of oppression are effective towards a wide range of people. This system is what holds people back from achieving the best for themselves. The groups of people that are held back mosts are women, Blacks, Chicanos, Puerto Ricans etc... The faces of oppression divided the people below with the people on top like whites and blacks. It also divides the people within a certain group. The faces of oppression are divided into five groups exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural, imperialism, and violence. Social groups are made to identify a person into a group and with this it makes it easier to keep a certain group down. Exploitation is using the hard work of another race or group of people. Whites will mostly get the high paying jobs. Blacks and Hispanics will usually get the low paying jobs or not have one at all. Even if a Black or Hispanic is equally qualified company will give the white people the job. Marginalization is when a different race can't even get the job. Not allowed to move up in the social scale. An example of this is when Rosa Parks took a test to be able to vote. They failed her just because of her races. Marginalization stops opportunities for the right to exercise capacities in socially defined and recognized ways (Adam 39). Powerlessness is third this to me means that power is only in the hands of a certain few. These people want to keep their power so they use others to make them able to keep their power and keep the people below from ever being able to gain any power. Make them feel like the best they can do is garbage. Cultural imperialism is basically making your culture seem like the right one by preaching it, as the model of living and saying that others should try to live like that person. this category is where stereotypes are used to make one's culture seem better. I think an example of this would be headeral sexuals with gays and lesbians. Most headeral sexual think of themselves as the norms and gays and lesbians as different. Lastly is Violence. Using violence to show dominance and force their views on others. This keeps other races or groups scared and forces them to change or go through more pain. Examples of this are when blacks in the 60s would fight for equality and justice. Whites would use violence to stop protesting and kill the spirit of the black people for fighting for what they believed. All these thing contributed to the oppression of groups of people. I think people today should get educated about these things so we can change the system for future generations. I also think conditioning plays a big part in the oppression of people. Showing images that form a child's mind in a negative way needs to be changed. We should find ways to show equality for all in the media. Until these problems are solved we as a people can't move foward.