Oppression
Oppression is malicious or unjust treatment of, or exercise of power over, a group of individuals, often in the form of governmental authority.
[citation needed] The word oppress comes from the Latin oppressus, past participle of opprimere, ("to press against",[2] "to squeeze", "to suffocate").
[3] Thus, when authoritarian governments use oppression to subjugate the people, they want their citizenry to feel that "pressing down", and to live in fear that if they displease the authorities they will, in a metaphorical sense, be "squeezed" and "suffocated".
[10]Research and theory development on social oppression has advanced apace since the 1980s with the publication of seminal books and articles, and the cross-pollination of ideas and discussion among diverse disciplines, such as feminism, sociology, psychology, philosophy, and political science.
[12] In a social group setting, oppression may be based on many ideas, such as poverty, gender, class, race, caste, or other categories.
According to Iris Marion Young, due to its pluralistic character, it is difficult to construct a definition that applies to all forms of oppression.
[14] Specifically, Young argues thatoppression is the inhibition of a group through a vast network of everyday practices, attitudes, assumptions, behaviors, and institutional rules.
[14] Structural or systemic refers to "the rules that constitute and regulate the major sectors of life such as family relations, property ownership and exchange, political powers and responsibilities, and so on".
[21] Audre Lorde, on the other hand, believes that there cannot be any hierarchy of oppression due to her experiences as both a Black and lesbian woman.
[24] Lynn Weber,[19] among some other political theorists, argues that oppression persists because most individuals fail to recognize it; that is, discrimination is often not visible to those who are not in the midst of it.
Even key aspects of social life traditionally seen as "neutral", such as language, can sustain gender oppression according to Gertrude Postl.
[35] In her article on oppression, Marilyn Frye suggests a myopic approach is necessary to understand how in society at large, women are sequestered to a second class role.
[37] An example of religious powerlessness existed during the 17th century when the Pilgrims, who wanted to escape the rule of the Church of England came to what is now called the United States.
The Pilgrims and the leaders of other communities where Protestants were in the majority used their power over legislatures to oppress followers of other religions in the United States.
Due to this view Chinese workers were denied equal pay, and they also suffered many hardships during the time which they spent working on the railroad.
[41] Acts of religious violence are also committed against practitioners of other religions in addition to Islam.Institutional oppression occurs when established laws, customs, and practices systemically reflect and produce inequities based on one's membership in targeted social identity groups.
Dating back to colonization, the United States implemented the annihilation of Native Americans from lands that Euro-Americans wanted, and condoned the institution of slavery where Africans were brought to the New World to be a source of free labor to expand the cotton and tobacco industry.
[43] Although the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments freed African Americans, gave them citizenship, and provided them the right to vote, institutions such as some police departments continue to use oppressive systems against minorities.
Racial profiling and police brutality are "employed to control a population thought to be undesirable, undeserving, and under punished by established law".
[44] In both situations, police officers "rely on legal authority to exonerate their extralegal use of force; both respond to perceived threats and fears aroused by out-groups, especially— but not exclusively— racial minorities".
[44] For example, "blacks are: approximately four times more likely to be targeted for police use of force than their white counterparts; arrested and convicted for drug-related criminal activities at higher rates than their overall representation in the U.S. population; and are more likely to fear unlawful and harsh treatment by law enforcement officials".
In April 1953, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued Executive Order 10450, which permitted non-binary sexual behaviors to be investigated by federal agencies.
[45] In addition, states such as Arizona and Kansas passed laws in 2014 giving religious-based businesses "the right to refuse service to LGBT customers".
School segregation in the United States is observed by some educators as oppression or closure[47] because students are denied access to resources and the privileged class is signaled that its denial of goods is justified.
[53] Some argue women are prevented from achieving complete gender equality in the workplace because of the "ideal-worker norm," which "defines the committed worker as someone who works full-time and full force for forty years straight," a situation designed for the male sex.
[52] Women, in contrast, are still expected to fulfill the caretaker role and take time off for domestic needs such as pregnancy and ill family members, preventing them from conforming to the "ideal-worker norm".
[57]By deciding to work abroad, laborers are "reinforcing the forces of economic oppression that presented them with such poor options".
[61] In other words, Crenshaw's concept of intersectionality captures the individual experiences of oppressed persons that do not solely fall under one header of sexism, racism, or something else.
Reformist feminists were often at the forefront of the media, primarily as a result of their unspoken support of other forms of oppression, and more easily met requests.
[27] Addressing social oppression on both a macro and micro level, feminist Patricia Hill Collins discusses what she calls the "matrix of domination".
