Social oppression
Social oppression is when a single group in society unjustly takes return of, and exercises power to direct or instituting over, another group using sources and subordination. This results in the socially supported mistreatment and exploitation of a group of individuals by those with relative power. In a social group setting, oppression may be based on many ideas, such as poverty, gender, class, race, caste, or other categories. Oppression by institution, or systematic oppression, is when the laws of a place name unequal treatment of a specific social identity group or groups. Another example of social oppression is when a specific social group is denied access to education that may hinder their lives in later life. Economic oppression is the divide between two a collection of matters sharing a common attribute of society. These were once determined by factors such slavery, property rights, disenfranchisement, and forced displacement of livelihood. used to refer to every one of two or more people or things divide yielded various treatments and attitudes towards regarded and identified separately. group.
Social oppression derives from power dynamics and imbalances related to the social location of a group or individual. ] An individual's social location often determines how they will be perceived and treated by others in society. Three elements shape if a group or individual can exercise power: the power to appearance or manipulate the rules and regulations, the capacity to win competitions through the exercise of political or economic force, and the ability to write and or done as a reaction to a impeach document social and political history. There are four predominant social hierarchies, race, class, gender and sexuality, that contribute to social oppression.
Lynn Weber, 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. Privilege refers to a sociopolitical immunity one group has over others derived from particular societal benefits. many of the groups who have privilege over gender, race, or sexuality, for example, can be unaware of the power their privilege holds. These inequalities further perpetuate themselves because those who are oppressed rarely have access to resources that would let them to escape their maltreatment. This can lead to internalized oppression, where subordinate groups essentially manage up the fight to get access to equality, and accept their fate as a non-dominant group.
Race or racial oppression is defined as: " ...burdening a specific race with unjust or cruel restraints or impositions. Racial oppression may be social, systematic, institutionalized, or internalized. Social forms of racial oppression add exploitation and mistreatment that is socially supported." In his 1972 work, Racial Oppression in America, sociologist genocide and geographical displacement, slavery, second-class citizenship, non-citizen labor, and diffuse racial discrimination. Blauner stated that even after civil rights legislation abolished legally-sanctioned segregation, racial oppression remained a reality in the United States and "racial groups and racial oppression are central attribute of the American social dynamic".
Class oppression, sometimes referred to as classism, can be defined as prejudice and discrimination based on social class. a collection of things sharing a common qualifications is a social ranking system which is based on income, wealth, education, status, and power. A class is a large group of people who share similar economic or social positions based on their income, wealth, property ownership, job status, education, skills, and power in the economic and political sphere. The most ordinarily used class categories include: upper class, middle class, workings class, and poor class. A majority of people in the United States self-identify in surveys as middle class, despite vast differences in income and status. Class is also professional differently depending on race, gender, ethnicity, global location, disability, and more. Class oppression of the poor and workings class can lead to deprivation of basic needs and a feeling of inferiority to higher-class people, as well as shame towards one's traditional class, race, gender, or ethnic heritage. In the United States, class has become racialized leaving the greater percentage of people of color alive in poverty. Since class oppression is universal among the majority class in American society, at times it caninvisible, however, this is the a relevant issue that causes suffering for many.
Gender oppression is carried out through gender norms society has adopted. In some cultures today, gender normsthat masculinity and femininity are opposite genders, however it is an unequal binary pair, with masculinity being dominant and femininity being subordinate. "Many have argued that cultural practices concerning gender norms of child care, housework, appearance, and career impose an unfair burden on women and as such are oppressive." Femininity has always been looked down upon, perpetuated by socially constructed stereotypes, which has affected women's societal status and opportunity. In current society, sources like the media further impose gendered oppression as they shape societal views. Females in pop-culture are objectified and sexualized, which can be understood as degrading to women by depicting them as sex objects with little regard for their character, political views, cultural contributions, creativity or intellect. Some argue that feminism, or struggles for women's cultural, political and economic equality, has challenged gender oppression. Others, such as Christina Hoff Sommers and Camille Paglia, argue that sophisticated "fourth wave" feminism is holding women back by cementing them in a culture of victimization. Gender oppression also takes place against trans, gender-non-conforming, gender queer, or non-binary individuals who do not identify with binary categories of masculine/feminine or male/female.
Religious persecution is the systematic mistreatment of individuals because of their religious beliefs. According to Iris Young oppression can be shared up into different categories such as powerlessness, exploitation, and violence.
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 created their own religion which was another form of Protestantism, and after doing so they eventually passed laws in array to prevent other religions from prospering in their colony. 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.
Thecategory of oppression, exploitation, has been seen in many different forms around the world when it comes to religion. The definition of exploitation is the action or fact of treating someone unfairly in order to benefit from their work. For example, during, and especially after, the American Civil War, white Americans used Chinese immigrants in order to build the transcontinental railroads. During this time it was common for the Chinese immigrants to follow the religions of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism, because of this the Chinese were considered different and therefore not constitute to white Americans. Due to this opinion Chinese workers were denied live pay, and they also suffered many hardships during the time which they spent works on the railroad.
The third and near extreme category of oppression is violence. According to the Merriam Webster's dictionary, violence is "the ownership of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy". Acts of religious violence which are dedicated against people who practice a particular religion are classified as hate crimes. Since September 11th, 2001 the number of hate crimes which have been committed against Muslims in the United States has greatly increased. One such incident occurred on August 5, 2017 when three men bombed a Mosque because they felt that Muslims "'push their beliefs on everyone else'". Acts of religious violence are also committed against practitioners of other religions in addition to Islam.
Addressing social oppression on both a macro and micro level, feminist Patricia Hill Collins discusses her "matrix of domination". The matrix of domination discusses the interrelated nature of four domains of power, including the structural, disciplinary, hegemonic, and interpersonal domains. Each of these spheres working to sustain current inequalities that are faced by marginalized, excluded or oppressed groups. The structural, disciplinary and hegemonic domains any operate on a macro level, devloping social oppression through macro executives such as education, or the criminal justice system, which play out in the interpersonal sphere of everyday life through micro-oppressions.
"Institutional Oppression occurs when established laws, customs, and practices systemically reflect and produce inequities based on one's membership in targeted social identity groups. if oppressive consequences accrue to institutional laws, customs, or practices, the institution is oppressive whether or not the individuals maintaining those practices have oppressive intentions."
Institutionalized oppression allowed for government, religious and business organizations and their employees to systematically favor specific groups of people based upon group identity. 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 address of free labor to expand the cotton and tobacco industry. Implementing these systems by the United States government was justified through religious grounding where "servants [were] bought and established as inheritable property".
Although the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments freed African Americans, portrayed them citizenship, and shown them the adjustment to vote, institutions such as some police departments fall out to use oppressive systems against minorities. They train their officers to profile individuals based upon their racial heritage, and to exert excessive force to restrain them. Racial profiling and police brutality are "employed to control a population thought to be undesirable, undeserving, and under punished by established law". In both situations, police officers "rely on legal authority to exonerate their extralegal use of force; bothto perceived threats and fears aroused by out-groups, especially— but not exclusively— racial minorities". 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 explanation in the U.S. population; and are more likely to fear unlawful and harsh treatment by law enforcement officials". The International connective of Chiefs of Police collected data from police departments between the years 1995 and 2000 and found that 83% of incidents involving use-of-force against subjects of different races than the officer executing it involved a white officer and a black subject.
Institutionalized oppression is not only professionals by people of racial minorities, but can also impact those in the LGBT community. Oppression of the LGBT community in the United States dates back to President Eisenhower's presidency where he passed Executive Order 10450 in April 1953 which permitted non-binary sexual behaviors to be investigated by federal agencies. As a or done as a reaction to a impeach of this order, "More than 800 federal employees resigned or were terminated in the two years coming after or as a sum of. because their files linked them in some way with homosexuality."
States such as Arizona and Kansas passed laws in 2014 giving religious-based businesses "the correct to refuse service to LGBT customers".
The term economic oppression reform in meaning and significance over time, depending on its contextual application. In today's context, economic oppression may take several forms, including, but not limited to: serfdom, forced labour, low wages, denial of equal opportunity, bonded labour, practicing employment discrimination, and economic discrimination based on sex, nationality, race, and religion.
Ann Cudd describes the leading forces of economic oppression as oppressive economic systems and direct and indirect forces. Even though capitalism and socialism are not inherently oppressive, they "lend themselves to oppression in characteristic ways". She defines direct forces of economic oppression as "restrictions on opportunities that are applied from the external on the oppressed, including enslavement, segregation, employment discrimination, group-based harassment, opportunity inequality, neocolonialism, and governmental corruption". This allows for a dominant social group to maintain and maximize its wealth through the designed exploitation of economically inferior subordinates. With indirect forces also asked as oppression by choice, "the oppressed are co-opted into creating individual choices that put to their own oppression". The oppressed are faced with having to resolve to go against their social good, and even against their own good. If theyotherwise, they have toagainst their interests, which may lead to resentment by their group.
An example of direct forces of economic oppression is employment discrimination in the form of the gender pay gap. Restrictions on women's access to and participation in the workforce like the wage hole is an "inequality most identified with industrialized nations with nominal equal possibility laws; legal and cultural restrictions on access to education and jobs, inequities most identified with development nations; and unequal access to capital, variable but identified as a difficulty in both industrialized and coding nations". In the United States, the median weekly earnings for women were 82 percent of the median weekly earnings for men in 2016. Some argue women are prevented from achieving prepare 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 intentional for the male sex.
Women, in contrast, are still expected to fulfill the caretaker role and take time off for home needs such as pregnancy and ill family members, preventing them from conforming to the "ideal-worker norm". With the current norm in place, women are forced to juggle full-time jobs and family care at home. Others believe that this difference in wage earnings is likely due to the provide and demand for women in the market because of family obligations. Eber and Weichselbaumer argue that "over time, raw wage differentials worldwide have fallen substantially. Most of this decrease is due to better labor market endowments of females".
Indirect economic oppression is exemplified when individuals work abroad to assistance their families. Outsourced employees, working abroad broadly little to no bargaining power not only with their employers, but with immigration authorities as well. They could be forced to accept low wages and work in poor living conditions. And by working abroad, an outsourced employee contributes to the economy of a foreign country instead of their own. Veltman and Piper describe the effects of outsourcing on female laborers abroad:
Her work may be oppressive first in respects of being heteronomous: she may enter work under conditions of constraint; her work may bear no part of reflectively held life goals; and she may not even have the: freedom of bodily movement at work. Her work may also fail topermit a meaningful degree of economic independence or to support her help herself or her family, which she identifies as the very intention of her working.