Understanding Oppression

• Oppression results from socially constructed power dynamics, privilege, control, and hierarchical differences.
• It is systemic and institutional, operating through ideologies, practices, and policies favoring one group while disadvantaging others.

Defining Features of Oppression

• Pervasive: Found across institutions and society.
• Restrictive: Limits self-determination and access to resources.
• Hierarchical: Maintains dominant/subordinate relationships.
• Complex/Multiple/Cross-Cutting: Experienced differently based on intersectional identities.
• Internalized: Marginalized people may adopt oppressive beliefs about themselves.
• Shared Characteristics: Often normalized, invisible, and perpetuated across generations.

Forms of Oppression

• Includes racism, classism, ageism, adultism, sexism, ableism, trans* oppression, and religious-based oppression.
• Sexism: Evidenced by wage gaps and underrepresentation in leadership.
• Ableism: Evidenced by lack of accessibility in public infrastructure.
• Adultism: Evidenced by dismissing youth voices in policy decisions.
• Redlining: A systemic form of racism embedded in housing policy.

Social Identity Wheel

• Used to examine the complexities of one's identity and the intersections of different social categories.
• Differentiates between salient vs. assumed identities.
• Helps understand dominant vs. targeted identities in systems of power.

Cycle of Socialization

• Explains the process by which we are indoctrinated into societal norms and roles.
• Stages include:
  • First socialization (family/early messages)
  • Institutional and cultural reinforcement (schools, media)
  • Enforcements (rewards/punishments for conformity)
  • Results (internalized oppression or dominance)
  • Direction for change (awareness and action).

Cycle of Liberation

• Outlines the steps necessary for breaking free from oppressive socialization and engaging in social change.
• Includes waking up, getting ready, reaching out, building community, coalescing, creating change, and maintaining momentum.

Five Faces of Oppression

• Includes exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and violence.
  • Exploitation: Unequal labor value extraction.
  • Marginalization: Systemic pushing out of people with disabilities and the elderly.
  • Powerlessness: Lack of decision-making authority.
  • Cultural Imperialism: Dominance of one group’s culture over others.
  • Violence: Constant threat or reality of harm (e.g., anti-Black violence).

Intersectionality

• Overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.
• Intersecting systems produce unique experiences of oppression.
• A Black woman faces racism and sexism simultaneously, not separately.

Liberatory Consciousness

• Framework for maintaining awareness of oppression while actively seeking to dismantle it.
• Includes Awareness, Analysis, Action, and Accountability/Allyship.

Microaggressions

• Reflect implicit biases and can be based on race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and ability.
  • Often unintentional but still harmful.
  • Microassault: Overt, intentional slurs.
  • Microinsult: Subtle put-downs (e.g., “You’re articulate” to a Black student).
  • Microinvalidation: Negating others' experiences (e.g., “I don’t see color”).

Social Work Practice

• Classified as micro (individual-level interventions), mezzo (group or community-level interventions), and macro (systemic or policy-level interventions).
• Micro: Therapy, case management, safety planning.
• Mezzo: Group counseling, support groups, school-based interventions.
• Macro: Policy reform, community organizing, legislative advocacy.

Advocacy

• Micro Advocacy: Focuses on individual or small group needs.
  • Example: Helping a client appeal a denied benefit.
• Mezzo Advocacy: Actions aimed at changing community practices or policies.
  • Example: Partnering with schools to improve anti-bullying programs.
• Macro Advocacy: Efforts to enact systemic change at the policy or societal level.
  • Example: Lobbying for expanded Medicaid access or racial justice policies.

Patriarchy

• Perpetuated through legal systems, media, education, and religion.
• Impacts people of all genders but disproportionately disempowers women and gender-diverse people.

White Supremacy Pillars

• Slavery/Capitalism: Anti-Black racism maintains systems of exploitation.
• Genocide/Colonialism: Indigenous erasure supports land theft.
• Orientalism/War: Perpetual threat of “foreign” other to justify war, surveillance, xenophobia.

Tools of Oppression

• Include violence, control of knowledge, dehumanization, invisibilization, and media representation.

Microaggressions (Discussion board)

• Everyday verbal insults that are subtle, targeting marginalized individuals.
  • Can be intentional or unintentional.
  • Microassaults: Conscious beliefs or attitudes intentionally expressed.
  • Microinsults: Verbal and nonverbal communication of rudeness due to social identity.
  • Microinvalidations: Statements or communications that dismiss the value of one's lived experience.

Examples of Microaggressions (Discussion board)

• Professionals of color mistaken for non-clinical staff or expertise questioned.
• Teachers mispronouncing a student's name or expressing surprise at a minority student's academic success.
• Landlords implying tenants from marginalized communities don't belong.

Discussing Race and Racism

• Often avoided but necessary for cultural competence.
• The phrase "I don't see color" invalidates someone's individuality.
• It is important to acknowledge another's race and learn more about it.
• A better understanding as a social worker will allow for a better relationship,

Social Minimum

• The basic level of income, resources, and social support needed to live in society.
• Includes access to housing, healthcare, education, and food.
• It is rooted in social policies such as welfare programs.
• Social workers advocate for policies to ensure everyone has access to the social minimum.

Cycle of Socialization (Discussion board)

• We are born into identities defined by society
• First socialization - we are influenced by those around us (family, etc.)
• Enforcements - people are rewarded by accepting their given roles and those who challenge norms are seen as troublemakers
• Results - Staying in these roles that society gives us causes crime, discrimination, stress, etc.
• At the center of the cycle is the core that keeps us stuck in the cycle (fear, ignorance, etc.).
• Can continue, or people can challenge the cycle and seek ways to liberate themselves.

Intersectionality (Discussion board)

• Traditional feminist and anti-racist approaches missed the unique experiences of Black women, who encounter both racial and gender discrimination at the same time
• Helps us appreciate how various aspects of a person’s identity come together to shape their experiences.

Three Pillars of White Supremacy

• Slavery/Capitalism explains how the idea of Blackness is tied to enslavement and the exploitation of their work for economic gain, resulting in systemic racism and economic disparities.
• Genocide/Colonialism explains why indigenous people are disappearing, justifying settler colonialism by erasing indigenous presences.
• Orientalism/War marks Asian, Arab, and Latinx communities as foreign threats, promoting militarization and imperialism by portrayal as dangers.

Advocacy in Mass Incarceration

• Micro: The discriminatory practices faced by individuals post-incarceration affect employment and housing access.
• Mezzo: Communities face economic strains and households are often run by single parents due to incarceration.
• Macro: Policies dictate discriminatory sentencing and biased fine imposition on Black and Brown individuals.

Core Aspects In Liberation & Intersectional Oppression

• Oppression reflects unequal power distribution, creating disparities for non-dominant groups.
• Criminal justice system disproportionately targets minorities and low-income communities.
• Liberation involves system disruption and empowering communities toward impactful systemic change.
• Intersectionality recognizes compounding effects of overlapping oppressions for targeted support.

Real World Examples

• Practicum work with clients aging in isolation exemplifies interconnected impacts of ageism, financial strife and limited social infrastructure for support.
• Redlining's lasting effects can be seen in major cities where Black communities are segregated and under-resourced due to historical financial discrimination.
• "Color-blindness" avoids addressing institutional racism by promoting the false idea that race is not a factor.
• Socialization examples through toys, expectations, and career paths result in the gender pay gap.
• Racial inequalities in society are reinforced by early lessons in schools and media, evident in discriminatory practices in the criminal justice system
• Five Faces of Oppression are demonstrated in homeless through exploitation through low-wage labor, exclusion via voting ineligibility, powerlessness with anti-camping law to policy impacts,.