OPPRESSION

* ADDITIONS IN BOLD *

- A social force that holds people back and keeps them down, blocking their pursuit of living
a good life.
- Shares a relationship with privilege in that with every social group that is privileged one or more groups are oppressed. It is this relationship that allows for the variance in personal experiences of being oppressed.
- Patterns of oppression are rooted in system that we all participate in and make happen; built into paths of least resistance that people feel drawn to follow everyday, regardless of whether they think about where they lead or the consequences they produce (from Johnson’s “What It All Has to Do with Us”, pg. 85)
- “The oppressed condition of blacks and other racial minorities encourages them to work for wages that are lower than what most whites will accept” (from Johnson’s “Capitalism, Class, and the Matrix of Domination” pg. 47).