Oppression as a Social Problem

Oppression as a Social Problem

The uniqueness of every human being, which is evident when he/she compares himself/herself with other people, makes him/her stand an excellent chance to understand the various things that make him or her different from others. Such exclusivity also exists between identical twins (Considine, 2010, p. 286). Despite the differences, biological, physical, geological, socio-economic aspects often keep groups of people together.

Since time immemorial, such differences have been the source of injustices that result in oppression and repression. Oppressive behaviors and ideals affect politics, laws, social, and cultural practices (Howard, 1999, p. 414). Oppression results in stigmatization of certain groups and communities.

This results from the reinforced generalized stereotypes. Therefore, one cannot mention the word oppression without referring to people, communities, and or authority (Allen, 2008, p. 158). There is always the oppressor and the oppressed whose unjustified actions make up the various facets of oppression. Therefore, the paper defines oppression in terms of marginalization, exploitation, powerlessness, cultural imperialism and violence: the key facets of oppression according to Iris Young.

The word oppression, as used in the contemporary world, has lost much of its despotic nature. It has taken an incidental socio-economic dimension (Considine, 2010, p. 287). According to Young, oppression includes people and communities affected by structural systems with no separate antagonist creating poor organizations and inequalities. It is not only the individuals and/or even groups of people who are behind the oppressive nature of society, but also structural systems.

Oppression, as injustice, results from the brutal exercise of authority. Nevertheless, one considers oppression in America in terms of ‘‘Civil Rights movement, and the unjust treatment of blacks that led to it’’ (Young, 1990, p. 392). Several Americans justified the open oppression, which led to the formation of the constitution to protect the rights and freedom of the minority.

Oppression often disadvantages the less fortunate individuals and communities in society. However, it affects the rich and the leaders indirectly (Howard, 1999, p. 405). The effects of injustice are inevitable. In spite of the rich oppressing the poor in society, some individuals, however, experience self-oppression.

Marginalization, as a facet of oppression, is the process of ‘branding’ certain individuals or communities in terms of race and ethnicity, status and or age. Marginalization is the most dangerous form of oppression that eliminates the whole group of people from participating in social life (Allen, 2008, p. 160). They remain unimportant and invisible to others who consider the oppressed as possessing characteristics such as ‘‘violence, low class, unintelligent, or lazy’’ (Young, 1990, p. 396).

Therefore, such individuals have the trouble of getting employment. Those already in the job face exterminations. This way of depriving people of their right to justice is rampant in a society where others have plenty of resources, as opposed to those without them. An attempt to redistribute social policies becomes unachievable (Howard, 1999, p. 411).

Otherwise, marginalization does not depend on only the provision material items, shelter, food, and excess freedom and rights. It deprives people of the distribution of justice blocking any opportunity to exercise capacities in socially defined and recognized ways.

Welfare redistribution does not eradicate large-scale suffering and dispossession. It only results in new injustices by depriving those who depend on it of their rights and freedoms. For instance, liberalism advocates for the rights of all rational citizenship neglecting those without questionable reasoning such as the poor, women, and children (Considine, 2010, p. 299). Depending on the institutions for services and or another person makes one subject to the service providers.

The administrators who only enforce rules for the marginalized to comply, otherwise, exercise excess power on the oppressed. Therefore, ‘‘dependency in any society is a sufficient warranty to suspend basic rights to privacy, respect, and individual choice’’ (Young, 1990, p. 397). For dependency not to be oppressive, it requires the society to have a high degree of morality because sick people and elders, as well as less fortunate persons in the society, need subsistence and support.

Exploitation is a process that occurs when a class exists in the absence of lawful and normative class divisions. The right to the appropriate product of labor in some societies determines the class in which one belongs (Allen, 2008, p. 159). Some become su