💾 Archived View for library.inu.red › file › crimethinc-undermining-oppression.gmi captured on 2023-01-29 at 08:53:13. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content

View Raw

More Information

➡️ Next capture (2024-06-20)

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Title: Undermining Oppression
Author: CrimethInc.
Date: August 20th, 2009
Language: en
Topics: oppression
Source: https://crimethinc.com/2009/08/20/undermining-oppression

CrimethInc.

Undermining Oppression

Ask an urban bird what a polluted sky is. You’ll get no answer. Even if

birds could tell their tale so you could understand it, they would

likely have no explanation for the pollutants they breathe and fly

through every moment of their lives. Polluted air simply is. Birds take

it for granted.

The first step in combating oppression is learning to recognize it. Many

people in North America seem to think racism, for example, is a thing of

the past, banished now by affirmative action programs and Black History

month. Radicals often have a stronger awareness of how prevalent racism

still is, and may even develop an analysis of how it is only one

manifestation of systematic white supremacy, but many go no further than

this. To undermine and ultimately abolish oppression, it is necessary to

take the step of confronting and undoing it in ourselves and others.

There are almost as many kinds of oppression as there are facets of our

complex identities; some strains are based on visible traits like race

or sex, others are not. Fortunately, there are also tools that can be

used for identifying, resisting, and dismantling all of them.

Throughout this recipe, we focus on white supremacy so as to offer

concrete examples, though it is not necessarily more widespread or

pernicious than patriarchy or any other form of oppression. Oppression

and privilege intertwine in extremely complex ways; racism, classism,

heterosexism, ageism, and others overlap and extend into all spheres of

our lives. Traditional single-issue activism focuses on contesting one

manifestation of these at a time: fighting the prison-industrial

complex, opposing corporate exploitation of low-wage workers,

challenging specific foreign policies. Such activism can benefit greatly

from a holistic understanding of oppression and how it operates—in these

examples, how state repression, capitalism, and imperialism all rest on

oppression and privilege. Whatever one’s chosen focus, it is important

to be aware of diverse forms of oppression and to challenge them on

every level.

Anger, Silence, and Guilt

Working against both institutional and personal manifestations of

oppression can be emotionally intense and challenging. In the course of

learning to recognize and struggle against oppression, one is likely to

encounter and experience deep resentment, regret, and heartache.

Many people have been deeply hurt and angered in the course of their

experiences of oppression, and these feelings of hurt and anger can be

hard for others to hear. Even when the ways they choose to express these

feelings seem unproductive or antagonizing to those who have not shared

their experience, it is important that they be supported in doing

so—otherwise, how are people to learn from one another and gain

perspective on themselves? If rage and pain are hard to hear about,

imagine how much harder they are to live with and give voice to!

Likewise, fighting racism and white supremacy isn’t a matter of simply

learning not to say the wrong thing. At worst, would-be radicals can

approach these issues in a self-serving manner, focusing on how to avoid

being accused of racism and privilege instead of concentrating on

actually combating them. If we are to effect real change in our society,

we will do better to deal with everything openly, however clumsily, than

to keep silent in fear of ourselves and each other.

Those who set out to contest their own privileges will inevitably

struggle with feelings of guilt. Such feelings can be powerful

resources; they can also paralyze and incapacitate. Guilt can motivate

one to act in accordance with one’s conscience, fostering self-awareness

and courage; it can also trap one in a closed circle of

self-recrimination. When those with privilege make their own guilt the

focus of their thinking about oppression, it can be a way of

re-centralizing their own experiences, turning away from the experiences

of those who bear the brunt of injustices and from the question of what

can be done.

When dealing with guilt, begin by analyzing what it is that makes you

feel guilty, and move swiftly on to the matter of what concrete steps

you can take to redress the situation. Focus on this, rather than on

shame and self-flagellation. However complicit you may be in oppressive

systems, however much more you may benefit from the status quo than

others do, you too are deserving, you too are unique, you too suffer,

just like everyone else—that is never in question. The question is what

you can do to stop being complicit, to stop benefiting at others’

expense.

Understanding What Oppression Is

Oppression is a network of forces and barriers that are not accidental

or occasional and hence avoidable, but systematically related in such a

way as to catch one between and among them, restricting or penalizing

motion in any direction. The experience of being oppressed is similar to

the experience of being caged—all avenues, in every direction, are

blocked.

Imagine a birdcage. If you look very closely at just one wire of the

cage, you cannot see the other wires. You could examine that wire, up

and down the length of it, and be unable to see why a bird would not

just fly around it any time it desired to. There is no physical property

of any one wire, nothing that the closest scrutiny could discover, that

would reveal how a bird could be inhibited or harmed by it. It is only

when you step back to view the whole cage that you can see why the bird

does not go anywhere. Then it becomes obvious that the bird is

surrounded by a network of systematically related barriers, no one of

which would be the least hindrance to its flight, but which, in

conjunction, are as confining as the solid walls of a dungeon.

Oppression can indeed be hard to see and recognize: one can study the

elements of an oppressive structure with great care without seeing the

structure as a whole, and hence without recognizing that one is looking

at a cage.

With this understanding of oppression, one can distinguish between the

terms oppression and domination. Domination occurs when an individual or

group coerces, controls, or intimidates others. Domination is noxious in

all its forms, but not all domination is oppression. Domination is being

blocked by a single wire of a birdcage. For example, when the one white

boy at an all-black school is taunted and even physically assaulted,

these are acts of domination, not oppression. Some would call this

reverse racism, but that expression is misleading: it suggests that the

boy is experiencing the same thing the black students are by growing up

in a white-dominated society, which is not the case. Oppression is not

merely individual instances of domination, prejudice, or ignorance; it

is the systematic privileging of one group over another. It is not

possible for a more privileged group to be oppressed by a less

privileged group: therefore reverse racism is a contradiction in terms.

In some ways, terms like racism and sexism are also misleading: they

fail to bring to light the fact that in every instance of oppression,

there is a privileged group as well as a targeted one. In using such

language, we can overlook the role we play in these systems of

oppression. Racism sounds like a mere matter of prejudice and ignorance,

but the problem is deeper than this: it is the centrality of whiteness

in our culture, which is better described by a term such as white

supremacy. Modern white supremacy is a long-standing, institutionally

perpetuated system of exploitation and oppression of continents,

nations, and peoples of color. White people and nations tyrannize others

in order to maintain and defend a system of wealth, power, and

privilege. By using language that indicates this, we can identify

clearly where privilege resides and what is actually at stake.

Identity

Western culture relies upon binary logic to classify things and people.

From childhood, we learn oppositions like day/night, good/bad, boy/girl,

and understand each word to have meaning only in relation to its

opposite. Good means the complete absence of bad things, boy means the

complete absence of girl things: boys are taught to be boys in large

part by being discouraged from all behaviors deemed girlish. As we grow,

we learn the many dualisms that frame the ways we see ourselves:

feminine/masculine, homosexual/heterosexual, immigrant/native,

children/adults, elderly/youthful, transgender/gender normative,

color/white.

These dualisms contribute to a conception of the world that is

oversimplified, even outright false. Not one of us embodies the extremes

they define. All the same, we attempt to fit into the rigid boxes these

words outline, so we can find words to describe who we are and live up

to the words that describe what is worth being. In the process, we

construct our individual identities, our sense of self, the defining of

which then creates another binary: the I/other dichotomy. In rigidly

defining who we are, we cast everything else as not like us, as other.

Just as each of us has an individual I, our society has a cultural I.

The cultural I purports to represent the most prevalent social

experience, even though the perspective it presents is actually that of

a small minority, if of anyone at all. The cultural I is white, male,

able-bodied, heterosexual, and every other characteristic defined as

“normal,” and is coded into our society through a variety of visual and

linguistic cues: the faces we see overwhelmingly in mass media, the

implicit meanings in words like history and mankind. The cultural I can

be recognized in what is not said, but assumed: philosophy means western

philosophy, history means US history. The assumptions that some people

don’t have accents, that only non-white communities are ethnic groups,

these are both evidence of the cultural I at work; the same goes for the

habit of referring to non-whites, women, and other demographics as

“minorities,” despite the obvious fact that they comprise the majority

of the population. The halves of the binaries which are normalized in

this way come to be taken for granted as standard—even if, like the

blonde actresses in Mexican soap operas, they are extremely uncommon—and

we only specify aspects of people’s identities when they deviate from

the norm.

Privilege

Whether they wish it or not, members of dominant social groups possess

unfair advantages over members of less privileged groups. Privilege

depends on the existence of hierarchy: an imbalance of power extending

throughout society, providing some demographics with more resources,

leverage, and comfort than others. The workings of hierarchy are

justified by supremacist thinking, such as the idea that some groups are

harder working, better equipped, or more deserving than others; they

also are obscured by the obliviousness that comes of identifying with

the cultural I. Privilege can be practically invisible to those who have

it; it is often painfully obvious to those who do not.

Social dynamics are never so simple that people can be divided easily

into oppressors and oppressed, however. Any individual may partake of

privilege in one situation, and suffer its absence in another. It makes

more sense to focus on the ways some benefit and others suffer in regard

to specific criteria, with an eye to following how these shift in

different contexts. A group of people who all identify as women of color

may be composed of different religions, genders, class backgrounds,

native tongues, ethnicities, sexual orientations, and conditions of

mental health and experience subtle power imbalances within their ranks

accordingly. Similarly, it is a mistake to think of different forms of

oppression as existing in a hierarchy of grievousness, or to argue that

some manifestations of oppression are mere subsets of others; to do so

trivializes the unique experiences of human beings, which cannot be

measured or reduced to abstractions.

Many privileged people think of themselves as self-sufficient, assuming

that they live in a meritocracy and that all that they have in life is

the result of their own hard work or that of their families. In doing

so, they overlook the institutional and cultural advantages from which

they benefit. To take stock of what advantages you might have in terms

of racial privileges, consider how many of these statements reflect your

experience:

most of the time.

and see people of my race widely represented.

school that testify to the existence of their race and to the history

and accomplishments of others of their racial background.

my race, into a supermarket and find the staple foods that fit with my

cultural traditions, into a hairdresser’s shop and find someone who can

work with my hair.

color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability.

without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals,

poverty, or illiteracy of my race.

to my race.

policies and behavior without being immediately seen as a cultural

outsider.

will be facing a person of my race.

negative episode or situation whether it has racial overtones.

For more perspective, go over this list again, replacing “race” with

ethnicity, sex, gender, age, shape, and so on. Of course, no two white

people experience white privilege in exactly the same way, just as not

every man feels safer walking alone at night than every woman. Some

people have made life decisions that result in them not experiencing

many of the daily privileges enjoyed by others of their demographic: a

taxi driver may be as likely to refuse to pick up a white man with

facial tattoos as a black man without them. But privilege, on a deeper

level, is not easily shaken off. The white man, in an extreme, can have

his tattoos removed, while the black man knows that the challenges he

faces in a racist society are inescapable. A woman from a middle class

family may choose a life of poverty and even homelessness, but the fact

that she is connected to people who might be able to help her in an

emergency makes her experience very different from that of a homeless

person of a poor background. Similarly, the advantages that come from

having been raised in a privileged setting remain throughout one’s life,

whatever else happens. Those of privileged backgrounds who choose a path

of exile upon which they experience alienation and persecution can draw

on these experiences to imagine what life is like for those who never

had their advantages in the first place.

Rather than denying the privileges one possesses or imagining one could

somehow wash one’s hands of them and thus of complicity in oppression,

it makes more sense to use one’s privileges, whatever they may be, to

undermine privilege in general. One way to do so is to find ways to put

these at the disposal of others who can benefit from them. If nothing

else, one should always attempt to stay aware of the unfair advantages

one has, and to take these into account in interactions with others; but

simply learning to recognize and decry one’s privileges while still

cashing in on them does not constitute an effective struggle against

oppression.

Reclaiming Identity: Identity Politics

A classic step in self-empowerment has been to reclaim the boxes we’re

forced into, reinterpreting them as politicized identities. By linking

up with others like us, we find validation of our experiences and

perspectives, and companions with whom to struggle against the forces

that oppress us and others.

The matter of identity is indeed complex. A person’s identity is not a

set of fixed essences, but a fluid intersection of social, political,

and psychological processes. Yet though the constructed identities

foisted upon us by this society may not reflect what we consider to be

our true selves, we must engage with them in order to subvert them.

Whether or not we want it to be the case, our experiences are shaped by

the ways we are perceived, and it can be useful to organize with those

who share our experiences.

For instance, even in gatherings of radicals or others thought to be

conscious about racism and white supremacy, people of color can feel

alienated, for example when there is a great disparity in numbers

between those who have white privilege in common and those who do not.

In such situations, one option is to call for a “caucus” or establish a

“safer space” wherein people of color invite others who identify

similarly to gather and interact in an exclusive space, or at least

taking a break from the potentially taxing experience of being in a

minority that must deal with uneven power dynamics. The purpose of this

is not to exclude those who do not identify as people of color. It is,

rather, a way for those who can feel alienated, marginalized, or

victimized in environments in which the tone is set by more privileged

groups to come together, support one another, and organize as they

desire. It can be a relief to take some time off from the challenges of

interacting with others who do not share one’s frame of reference for

oppression, and from feeling the pressure of others’ observation and

expectations. Ultimately, it is in the best interest of everyone in a

group that all individuals within it feel comfortable and empowered.

Caucuses and safer spaces need not be limited to people of color, of

course: all who feel they might benefit from this format can employ it.

They need not happen only at short-term gatherings of radicals, either:

it can make sense to have weekly caucuses in a community, or monthly

ones within a collective, or to call for one in the midst of an

organizing effort. Women-only houses can offer round-the-clock safer

space, youth-only radio stations can provide opportunities for

individuals to develop their unique voices, queer-only magazines and

action groups can carry out long-term campaigns. In this way, the

identities that mark targeted groups for oppression can be turned into

sites for organizing resistance to it.

Self-Empowerment

Covering the surface of this society is a complex network of minute

rules and norms through which the most original minds and energetic

characters can barely penetrate. People’s wills are not shattered, but

softened, bent, and guided. We are seldom forced to act, but are

constantly restrained from acting. Such repression does not destroy, but

rather prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but instead

compresses, stifles, and stupefies, so that each individual grows up

into a dutiful lamb that needs no shepherding to stay within the

fence-line. This is not political repression, which necessitates secret

police and prison camps, but cultural repression, in which people police

and imprison themselves.

It is too simplistic to imagine individual social controllers in the

upper echelons of power as the source of all oppression. White

supremacy, for example, is not just the clubs of white policemen, nor

the country clubs of white executives. White power is not just the power

of white people; it is a system of dynamics extending throughout every

level of a society, present in every interaction and within every

individual. This is why there can be white privilege even in nations

where—according to conventional North American standards—no one is,

technically speaking, white. Likewise, there is no external enemy we can

march against to overthrow patriarchy; we are within enemy territory,

and the enemy is within us. At the same time as we fight against

external manifestations of oppression, we must also struggle against

those we have internalized, putting an end to our own oppressive actions

and empowering ourselves to cast off the shackles we have received.

Learning to take criticism constructively—even when it’s hard to feel

that it is intended constructively—is an important part of this. If one

is too defensive to receive perspective on one’s own attitudes and

conduct, one will miss out on countless opportunities to better oneself.

At the same time, one must learn to recognize the voice of the oppressor

in one’s own head, telling one what one can and cannot do, what one

deserves and does not deserve. An encouraging, inspiring circle of peers

can help to counteract this internalized oppression.

Being an Ally

To be allies to others in the struggle against racism—to name one

example of oppression—is to recognize that racism exists within us

without resigning ourselves to that fact, and to engage in real

resistance that goes beyond the confession of our personal complicity.

It is to accept that we who have internalized racial dominance will

never fully understand the plight of those who suffer the injustices of

white supremacy more than we do, and yet to do all we can to learn from

their experiences. It is to take an active role in fighting against

racist institutions, without compromising the autonomy of those who have

even more at stake in this struggle than we do.

People sometimes assume that the means for learning about racism are in

scarce supply. This is an absurd, perhaps even subtly racist assumption,

as it ignores the abundance of experience around us. To gain an

understanding of the workings of white supremacy, one need not attend

endless workshops or become involved in an obscure subculture; indeed,

there are reasons to be suspicious of anti-racist organizing in which

white experts take the lead in educating and organizing. There are no

experts on oppression—or rather, all who experience oppression are

experts. Even if you have been so privileged as not to have experienced

it yourself, there are people all around you who know firsthand what it

is to bear the brunt of racist injustice and inequality. You simply must

learn to listen to them, and to conduct yourself such that they will be

willing to share their experiences with you.

At the same time, no person more targeted by the racist system than you

are owes it to you to take the time to educate you about racism. They

have enough to deal with already, without you feeling entitled to make

assumptions about or demands of them. Many people of color are exhausted

from being asked to speak for all members of their race throughout their

lives, or for that matter for all members of all non-white races.

Whenever people less privileged than you are willing to take the time to

share their perspectives, they are giving a generous gift, one greater

than anyone could possibly ask of them and not to be taken for granted.

In the meantime, whenever you need to learn about racism and white

supremacy and don’t know who to approach, you can always consult the

vast bodies of literature, film, music, and history made by those of

less privileged backgrounds than your own. Aspiring anti-racists of all

races, accustomed to listening to popular white views on nearly

everything, would benefit from taking in knowledge of all sorts from

multiple sources. As programmed as we all have been by this racist

society, we owe it to ourselves and each other to begin learning the

rest of our history and culture.

Educating oneself is a critical starting place, but this is not

sufficient to make one a good ally: one must make use of this education

in practice. Learning the ways that privileged groups dominate others,

one must then take steps to cease all such activities. This can be as

simple as a man learning not to interrupt women in conversation, or as

complex as a household of white tenants joining in a struggle against

the gentrification of their predominantly black neighborhood.

To be an ally, one ultimately must provide concrete support to those on

the front lines of the struggle against oppression. In doing so, a

person from a privileged background should be careful not to attempt to

assume control, as he or she has been conditioned to feel entitled to

do, but rather endeavor to provide support to others according to their

express wishes. Above all, would-be allies must stay sensitive, both to

the needs of others and to the tragedies in the world around them, and

put their outrage at the disposal of those who suffer these tragedies.

Group Dynamics

Oppression is not an individual problem, but a social phenomenon;

accordingly, while individuals can work on deconstructing it within

themselves and supporting others who are struggling against it, the most

important work against oppressive dynamics takes place in social groups.

Hierarchical power dynamics are common even in affinity groups,

collectives, and other groups that aspire to radical activity. Many

communities include aggressive or dominating individuals who, in

speaking or acting, hinder others from doing so. They offer their

opinions on every topic, take over the organizing of every project,

seize every opportunity to speak on behalf of others. Such dominating

individuals may believe that they are doing the majority of the work

because no one else would do it if they did not; but it can also be the

case that they are creating an environment in which others become

unwilling to fight for space in which to act. Taken by itself, this

behavior is only domination; but when one factors in the privileges many

domineering individuals abuse and perpetuate, it can be recognized as

yet another manifestation of oppression.

Individuals must develop the self-awareness to resist dominating social

situations and prevent others from dominating them. There are tools

groups can use collectively to this end, as well. Simple matters, such

as how accessible gathering times and locations are to different

demographics and whether childcare is available, can determine who is

and is not able to participate in specific projects and social circles.

In meetings, a group can give speaking priority to those who have been

speaking less, or to those who are more directly affected by the issue

in question. Discussions can be set up in a format that encourages the

equal participation of different groups: for example, women and men can

alternate speaking, so there will be equal proportions of male and

female voices heard. No structure can be counted on to be better than

the people who make use of it—there’s no substitute for self-awareness

and sensitivity—but such conventions can be a stepping stone to more

naturally egalitarian dynamics.

Another format useful for resolving conflicts or giving a group

perspective on its inner dynamics is sometimes called a “fishbowl.” This

exercise is like safer spaces and caucuses in that a space and time is

set aside for one demographic within the group to speak, but in this

case the rest of the group is present, listening to but not

participating in the discussion. This can be a tremendously instructive

opportunity for those with privilege to learn about others’ experiences,

and for those who experience challenges in working with privileged

individuals to address them; at the same time, this practice must be

applied with care, as it can make people feel singled out.

No one appreciates feeling used or put on display because of the color

of their skin or any other such characteristic. This is sometimes called

tokenization, and it is a blunder many commit in attempts to make their

communities more welcoming to “others.” Recruiting people of color,

women, or other less privileged demographics to prove one’s dedication

to anti-oppression work, or asking them to speak as “the minority” in

meetings or conversations, can itself be oppressive behavior.

Nurturing Relationships

Developing relationships with those who experience less privilege is no

guarantee that we will deal openly and consistently with race or any

other such issue. Too often, people claim to understand the experiences

of another group because of a high degree of exposure to them: “But my

best friend is black!” “But my stepfather wasn’t born here!” A white

person’s relationship with a person of color can never be a proof or a

credential of anti-racist consciousness.

All the same, working to dismantle the institutional, cultural, and

personal barriers that keep us alienated from one another is a

fundamental part of undermining white supremacy and other forms of

oppression. We may have to accept that there will always be more

barriers to remove, but in removing those we are able to we learn and

grow in revolutionary ways. Meaningful relationships that transcend

boundaries and constructs can offer a taste of the world oppression

otherwise denies us. Building friendships and alliances with people

whose experience of oppression is different from our own is much more

than a strategy for working towards specific political ends; it is also

a way to live life more fully and do our part to make it possible for

others do the same.