CR#5: Oppression at Canal

In the “Five Faces of Oppression”, Iris Marion Young explains that oppression is associated with conquest and colonial domination but it then became a structural injustice and unconscious assumptions of well-intentioned people. Ada Isasi-Diaz in “Lo Cotidiano: A Key Element of Mujerista Theology” defines oppression as women “who struggle to survive and flourish constantly” (5). Isasi Diaz goes on to explain that oppressed Latina women have to face challenges that will make their everyday lives just a little bit harder. Lo cotidiano experiences are really important because it shows the daily challenges people face, especially Latina women, and exposes the structural changes that need to be made for their lives to become easier. My seemingly mundane pattern is that I’ll wake up around 6 AM or 7 AM in order to get a head start on my day. This includes packing my backpack for school, cooking my meals so I can eat throughout the day, and making sure I have everything I need before leaving my house. I live off-campus I don’t come back to my house until I’m done with everything I have to do for that day. My day starts at 9 AM every day so I tend to leave at 8:30 AM to beat traffic and get to work or school on time. It then takes another couple of minutes to find parking and make sure I have enough time to walk to my class or work from where I parked. I usually don’t come back home until 8 PM or 9 PM depending on the day. Lo cotidiano for me is normal but because I have to get up early and prepare for my busy schedule, it shows that I don’t have the luxury to waste time to do whatever I want. It also shows that I am not the richest person in the world if I work an 8-hour shift before my night class. But it does show I have an advantage because I have a car that works and gets me wherever I need to go. I don’t have to rely on public transportation or on other people for rides. Because I have the privilege of going to a university, it also shows that I had and continue to have access to technology and resources that other people who did not attend college don’t have. I had access to a kitchen for food and I have enough money to buy groceries to make my own food which is another privilege/advantage for me that I often overlook. I do sleep in the living room and live with 4 other roommates so sometimes I wake up earlier because of them or they leave the kitchen so messy that I can’t cook anything for that week. To me, it has become normal to work around anything that my roommates do that can interfere with my routine. But the fact, that I do have my own bed and am able to pay my rent every month shows that my socioeconomic status is a little higher than someone that doesn’t have the same access to resources, has the ability to work during school, or doesn’t have a car which limits their job opportunities. I can begin to observe lo cotidiano experiences of the ESL students at Canal Alliance by observing what time a student comes to class. Sometimes a student will come to class 10 minutes late. What was keeping that student from coming to class on time? It can be a variety of things like work, family, lack of transportation, or simply being too tired. Because Canal is a Hispanic community of immigrants and their native language is typically Spanish, it limits a lot of their job opportunities especially in a predominantly white area like Marin. They are usually exploited through cheap labor. Exploitation is a “steady process of the transfer of the results of the labor of one social group to benefit another” (Young 51). It’s very common to see an immigrant that doesn’t speak English as a servant at hotels and restaurants where the job “entail(s) a transfer of energies whereby the servers enhance the status of the served” (Young 52). Servants have limited power in their job and they are dedicating to helping or making for others rather than for themselves. This can be considered an inferior position to be looked down upon in society thus subjecting them to have a lower socioeconomic status.

Another way to observe lo cotidiano experiences of the ESL students at Canal Alliance is to understand where these people are coming from and try to understand what is out of their control. When people try everything in their power to survive their daily struggle yet they are still facing discrimination, then the system or the structure of power is not balanced. This cultural discrimination is not something that can be easily stopped when “the outside, positioned, placed, by a network of dominant meanings they experience as arising from elsewhere, from those with whom they do not identify and who do not identify with them” (Young 56). When you’re holding the dominant culture as your frame of reference, then it can be easy to make assumptions of these people and assume they aren’t trying hard enough. If a student isn’t paying attention in class, it could be that they are too tired from working, taking care of family, or maybe their living conditions don’t allow them to sleep well. This student could still want to learn and be trying their best. The dominant culture promotes this idea that working hard will get you further in life but this isn’t necessarily true for everyone. “These dominant cultural expressions often simply have little place for the experience of other groups…and the oppressed group’s own experience and interpretations of social life finds little expression that touches the dominant culture…” (Young 57).