Oppression

Oppression derives from the concept of being weighted down, and is often depicted as such. Here, a political cartoon shows a Jew laboring under the metaphorical oppression of the Russian Tsar

Oppression is the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner.^[1] It can also be defined as an act or instance of oppressing, the state of being oppressed, and the feeling of being heavily burdened, mentally or physically, by troubles, adverse conditions or people, and anxiety.

Social oppression

Social oppression is the socially supported mistreatment and exploitation of a group, category, or team of people or individuals.

Institutionalized oppression

"Institutional Oppression occurs when established laws, customs, and practices systematically 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."^[2]

Resistance

Several movements have arisen that specifically aim to oppose, analyze and counter oppression in general; examples include Liberation Theology in the Christian world, and Re-evaluation Counselling in the psychotherapeutic arena.

See also

References

Further reading

• Guillaumin, Colette. 1995. Racism, Sexism, Power and Ideology. London: Routledge.
• Hobgood, Mary Elizabeth. 2000. Dismantling Privilege: An Ethics of Accountability. Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim Press.
• Young-Bruehl, Elisabeth. 1996. The Anatomy of Prejudices. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
• Noël, Lise. 1994. Intolerance, A General Survey. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.bany, NY: State University of New York Press.
• Smith, Morgan. 2008. Why I stick it to the man, and why you should too. New York: HarperCollins Publishers
• Omi, Michael and Howard Winant. 1994. Racial Formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s. New York: Routledge.
• Feagin, Joe R. and Hernan Vera. 1995. White Racism: The Basics. New York: Routledge.
• Pincus, Fred L. 1999 and Howard J. Ehrlich, eds. 1999. Race and Ethnic Conflict: Contending Views on Prejudice, Discrimination, and Ethnoviolence. Boulder, Colo.: Westview.
• Beck, Aaron, M.D. 1999 Prisoners Of Hate. New York: HarperCollins Publishers
• Solzhenitsyn, Alexandr, "The Gulag Archipelago," Harper and Row, 1973
• Kiernan, Ben, "The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79," Yale University Press, 1996
• Cudd, Ann E. 2006. Analyzing Oppression. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Deutsch, Morton. 2006. A Framework for Thinking about Oppression and Its Change. "Social Justice Research", Vol. 19, No.1, March 2006, pp. 7–41.
• muvirimi learnmore.the oppressor behaviour .2013 university of Zimbabwe press.