CR#3: Liberating the Oppressed

Humanization is a process where a person or persons gains humanity. This can be the liberty to exercise our human rights and maintain this notion that we are all people so we should be treated as such. Dehumanization is “a distortion of being more fully human” (Friere ch.1). This is how an individual or a whole community of people is oppressed and their liberty has been stolen. Paulo Friere says that humanization is the equivalent of supporting “…the emancipation of labor, for the overcoming of alienation, for the affirmation of men and women as persons would be meaningless,” (Ch. 1.) Critical consciousness is a self-awareness of your surroundings like understanding the political climate your in. Francisco Weffart states that “The awakening of critical consciousness leads the way to the expression of social discontents precisely because these discontents are real components of an oppressive situation.” His statement solidifies the idea that critical consciousness is an “awakening” and realizing that you are in “an oppressive situation.” For minority communities that don’t have critical consciousness, most likely hold this belief that they have to conform to this repetitive system of the oppressor or the oppressed. The common types of power that are exposed in extreme circumstances are being a blue-collar worker that constantly does physical labor to keep up with bills and have very limiting circumstances when it comes to receiving higher education. Or having all these opportunities open up to you due to certain unspoken (but very real privileges) that an individual may hold. This can lead to the oppressed turning into the oppressor. Paulo Friere points out this pattern is more common in the initial stages “of the struggle” and “the oppressed, instead of striving for liberation, tend themselves to become oppressors, or ‘sub-oppressors,’” (Ch 1). Colonized people are expected to follow the rules of the colonizers and reject anything that goes against the colonizer’s system of oppression, in fear that the colonized will start to question the system. Acquiring freedom is not something that happens naturally. “It must be pursued constantly and responsibly,” (Friero ch. 1).

Horton and Friere use practice and knowledge which could be the equivalence of cultural competence and cultural humility. Cultural competence aka knowledge is something you learn and can build off of. They refer to it as a starting point of “understand[ing] the experience” and “the practice of people” (98). But you have to be able to put this knowledge and experience into practice aka cultural humility. I want to build up my knowledge and put it into practice by getting to know the Latinx community and being able to see them for who they are and not what I assume they are. I find it incredibly easy for me to think of all Hispanic immigrants as in dire need of help but that is not the case for everyone. Every immigrant has a story to tell and they have incredible courage and bravery to have made it this far. For my ELS community partner, I know that every student is a native Spanish speaker and is coming to learn English for various reasons. That’s the knowledge or cultural competence that I know. I can build onto my cultural humility by allowing them to form their own character without my assumptions limiting their potential.