The focus on women`s gender oppression, disadvantage and inequality has been accompanied by research on women`s ability to take action to shape the spaces and places in their lives. Research in political geography as well as on environment and development provides good examples. Both illustrate how feminist science has helped to discover the links between production and reproduction, but also between „public“ and „private“ spaces, and challenge the validity of viewing them as binary divisions. Studies of political struggles in Latin America (Radcliffe and Westwood 1993) show how women invoke their „private“ identity as mothers to go into public space to protest state violence. These women transgressed in public spaces, for example by searching secret cemeteries, taking and publishing photos of tortured and „disappeared“ people, and visiting prisons. But they are also integrating traditional „private“ care responsibilities for women into their public projects – they organize health and childcare services and provide food and clothing to refugees. Similarly, research on Palestinian women under Israeli occupation argues that their resistance in the public political arena has been exacerbated by military incursions into remote private spaces of the home and their need to defend their children on the streets (Mayer 1994). But for many Muslim women, religion is seen as a source of liberation rather than a source of oppression. Britannica.com: Encyclopedia articles on oppression Oppression (disadvantage and injustice) is not only the product of conscious action, but can result from social practices shaped by certain values and norms. It is important to note that „oppression can arise not only from society that actively seeks to disadvantage certain groups of people, but rather from the impact of uncontested societal norms, laws, and assumptions“ (Northway 1997, p. 738). Repression can result from both commissioning and omission. At the time Crenshaw articulated the concept of intersectionality, academic poet and social activist Audre Lorde warned America against fighting some oppressions, but not others.
She insisted, „There is no hierarchy of oppression.“ All oppressions must be detected and fought at the same time. This has led American society to understand that although we have different identities, we are all connected as human beings. Indigenous peoples` experiences with colonial oppression have created significant diversity between and within Indigenous cultures. This diversity can be observed along an axis that ranges from deep immersion in Indigenous cultures to deep immersion in colonial cultures. This axis would have a split at one end with those who consciously choose not to identify with the colonizing culture on the one hand, and those who have unconsciously internalized their oppression on the other. This diversity becomes even more complicated because colonizing cultures are heterogeneous, as is a significant diversity between French, Spanish, Dutch, English and American cultures. The reason we were liberals was because we were against oppression. Oppression causes deep suffering, but trying to decide if one oppression is worse than others is problematic.
It diminishes lived experiences and divides communities that should be working together. Many people experience abuse because of multiple social identities. Often, oppressions overlap to create even more distress for people. This overlap of removed groups is called „intersectionality.“ Jurist Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term in the 1980s to describe how black women in American society faced increased struggle and suffering because they belonged to several oppressed social groups. In extreme cases, oppression and conflict can lead to ethnic cleansing, as has happened in Cyprus, Palestine, Bosnia or Sudan; and even genocide, as we saw horribly during the extermination of the Jews by the Nazis and more recently in Cambodia and Rwanda. The common denominator was the constructed „eternal possession“ of the homeland by the dominant ethnic nation and the dubious status of minorities. The concept of an exclusive homeland can also trigger a „chain reaction“ and mobilize minorities against each other. The logic of ethnic spatial purity is illustrated by the following quote from an ancient Sinhalese text, the Pujavaliya, which is often used in the current ethnic struggle in Sri Lanka to anchor buddhist-Sinhalese domination over other communities residing in the island nation. Bloodshed, oppression, blackmail and all the instinctive habits of the intelligent savage were again spread. Emerging calls to address the limits of anti-oppression have referenced critical racial theory (Razack and Jeffery, 2002) and critical racial feminism (Clarke, 2012; Pon et al., 2011; Razack et al., 2010), Anticolonialism (Pon et al., 2011; Sinclair et al., 2009) and decolonization (Baskin, 2010; Lavallée, 2007; Lawrence and Dua, 2005), especially since these theories address the fundamental challenges of white supremacy, imperialism, racism, settler colonialism, and interlocking oppression. There is a wealth of literature on the ongoing colonialism and racism experienced by Aboriginal and racialized peoples in Canada (Baskin, 2010; Clarke et al., 2012; Dei, 2008; James, 1996; Lawrence and Dua, 2005). Despite this science, there is relatively little discussion of racism and colonization in social work education.
To fill this gap, three Aboriginal professors Raven Sinclair et al. (2009) recently published a book entitled Wicihitowin: Aboriginal Approaches to Social Work, which is a required reading requirement for high school students in Ryerson University`s social work program. The text provides social work students with knowledge about Indigenous worldviews, research and practice, the history of colonization, and decolonization processes in Canada. Although Indigenous content is included in Ryerson University`s social work programs and such core courses are offered to students, they remain marginal in many social work programs in Canada. Thus. The nation struggled to equate its new freedom with the oppression of the past. On the contrary, each new religion appeared, at least in part, as a protest against violence and oppression. Download this fact sheet on privilege and oppression in American society from Kalamazoo College Middle English oppressioun, borrowed from Anglo-French oppression, borrowed from the Latin oppressiÅn-, oppressiÅ „action to press or crush“, from oppres- or *oppret-, stem variant of opprimere „continue to press, suffocate, overwhelm“ + -tiÅn-, -tiÅ, suffix from verbal action to more to oppression Table 1 summarizes the Premises of three main approaches to oppression politics towards ethnic minorities together – oppression, the status quo and adaptation. These are not mutually exclusive, and the table treats them as „ideal types“ for analytical purposes. It is recognized that policies and spaces are actually more complex and multi-layered. They must face oppression with humble perseverance and absolute conviction. In American society, systems of oppression and their impact on people have a long and deep history.
But America and our society can change. As our country evolves, we can recognize its problems and work to make changes for the better. We can come together to resist the status quo and existing systemic barriers to create new systems of justice, fairness and compassion for all of us. On the other hand, some schools have developed specific Aboriginal curricula based on Aboriginal epistemologies (Sinclair et al., 2009). While these programs are accountable to the Aboriginal community and Elders are physically present in classrooms, they operate within the confines of CASW, with national standards that marginalize Aboriginal knowledge (Bruyere, 2007). This problem is exacerbated by the relatively small number of Indigenous (2.1%) and racialized (17%) faculty in the academy who restrict science, research and teaching (Canadian Association of University Teachers, 2010). Social work`s attempt to integrate other means of knowledge into their curricula is crucial for.“ defy eurocentric discourses“ and „. undermines the dominant thought that re-inscribes colonial and colonizing relations“ (Dei and Kempf, 2006: p. 3). Calls to address the boundaries of anti-racism and anti-oppression must also address the decoupling of anti-racism and anti-colonialism in much of social work training, which helps fuel discursive and political tensions between migrants, settlers, racialized people and Indigenous peoples in Canada (Lawrence and Dua, 2005). Anti-racist theory has been criticized for excluding an Indigenous perspective and failing to think about Indigenous and colonialism persisting in settler society (Lawrence and Dua, 2005). As Lawrence and Dua (2005) claim, much of „Indigenous activism against settler rule takes place without people of colour being allies“ (p.
120). As a profession, social work has not been able to effectively advance Indigenous decolonization or address racism and other forms of oppression, including the marginalization of Blacks. Therefore, there is a need for social work training to focus on anti-Black racism. Racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination and prejudice can lead to oppression, especially when laws are enacted on the basis of those laws. Many disability theorists speak of the „oppression“ of people with disabilities: the result of domination and ideologies of superiority and inferiority (e.g., Charlton 1998, Oliver 1990). Oppression describes the disadvantage and injustice experienced by certain social groups (Northway, 1999). Young (1990) identified five „faces“ of oppression that gave theorists a conceptual framework for examining the situation of persons with disabilities: marginalization, exploitation, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and violence.