Wk7-For Paula!

Defining oppression

Oppression refers to the unjust exercise of power or discretionary authority by the ruling or dominant group ill motive or unfair intentions. Oppression may result in harm or injuries to the victims. Oppressions may also result in injustices to the victims. Tyranny does not only arise from cruel leadership or majority groups but also civilized societies. The choice for regulations and policies may impose restrictive structures that inhibit specific group or groups of people from exercising their freedom freely.

Five Faces of Oppression

According to Iris Marion, there are five faces of oppression. The five faces include exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism and violence. Each of the five faces is outlined and summarized in this section.

Exploitation

According to Iris Marion exploitation involves exploitation of other individual’s labor to generate business profits while not rewarding the individuals fairly. In this case, individuals are paid for the work done but the payment given is not commensurate with the services provided or job done. Individuals perpetrating oppression on others commonly exploit the loopholes with the industry laws and regulations at their advantage. Other oppressors rely on the economic theory of capitalism that advocates individuals are ordinarily free to exchange their goods and services at will

The economic approach of capitalism use in different society has led to the classification of people into groups such as the poor and the wealthy. Capitalist society has always promoted the oppression of the poor by the wealthy group. The capitalist system always ensures that the economic conditions favor the rich while the poor find it hard to survive. As a result, the poor become vulnerable to exploitation by the rich.

Marginalization

Marginalization involves the process of confining a particular group of people into the lowest social level of society. In other words, marginalization refers to the act of excluding some people from most of society development agendas. Marginalization frequently occurs among different races. For instance, a whole group of Amazon may find themselves being alienated from most of the Southern Americas society and be forced out of their old rainforest of Amazon.

By not being involved in public social and economic activities leaves the marginalized groups less empowered. The groups find themselves with no material possessions. As a result, the majority of individuals from the marginalized groups usually are left to wade in abject poverty. At times catering for the basic needs such as food and shelter becomes a hard task. The majority are left with no options but forced to engage in criminal activities such as robbery or prostitution.

Powerlessness

Powerlessness is a situation that arises out of the fact that some people within our societies have powers while others have no powers at all. The case is also supported by Karl Marx theory of socialization that advocated on the same idea too. The powerless are dominated by those with powers. In other words, the powerless group ends up becoming the subjects of those with power and find themselves taking orders from those in power and rarely do they have the right to give them.

Powerless groups become vulnerable to disrespectful treatment since they are considered lowest within the societies. Other times powerless groups are denied fundamental rights such as decision making regarding some of the things that affect them in a community. The situation forces the powerless groups to almost believe that there is no need to participate in any of the significant decision events such as voting. The feeling arises from the assumption that their presence or participation means nothing.

The powerlessness becomes continued oppression when individuals end up believing that they are powerless and they have no place in society. The situation forces individuals to oppress themselves more than other people would do. Powerlessness feeling makes one think little of their affairs and only focus on their master's interests. The feeling forces individuals to forget that they are being oppressed or exploited. Powerlessness when perpetrated to victims over a long period cause then to end up believing that is the way of life. At this stage, powerlessness groups embrace the culture of silence. The culture of silence helps promote evil in society. Group members are left to suffer in silence since they are not bold enough to share out their experience or encounters. Education and activism awareness has seen the powerlessness feeling within society reduce. Increased literacy gained through education continues to help powerless individuals and groups to self-evaluate themselves to fight for their rights.

Cultural Imperialism

Cultural imperialism refers to the process of taking the culture of the rulers or the ruling class and imposing it as the norm to all other groups within any given society. The ruling class is so powerful such that they control almost every aspect of all other groups. The group’s influence on how all other groups communicate or interpret things in society. For instance, American culture is founded on Christian beliefs and values. Every other group is supposed to behave or act per generally accepted American culture. Other groups such as Muslims and Hindu are left to observe a lifestyle that goes against their religious orientation.

Violence

Violence involves inflicting injury or damage to people or their properties or both of them at the same time. Violence is the most visible and feared form of oppression that makes groups or individuals live in fear of random and unprovoked attack on their properties or lives. Violence is advanced to individuals with malice intentions of humiliating, damaging or destroying the person or persons. Violence at times is focused on individuals or groups with the purpose of cutting new or unknown customs from society. For instance, homosexuals may experience violence to discourage their sexual orientation within American society.

Five faces of oppression grid