CR5: Oppression is Part of Our Daily Reality

In “Five Faces of Oppression,” Iris Marion Young explains how it is challenging to define oppression as diverse groups are differently oppressed when compared to one another. However, oppressed groups share one commonality: “The inability ability to develop and exercise their capacities and express their needs, thoughts, and feelings” (50). In other words, people suffering from oppression are silenced continuously and robbed from their voices. They can’t express their needs as decisions are imposed continually by the dominant group. Ultimately, they are denied the ability to play a role in the decision-making process.

Young explains that there are five faces of oppression: exploitation, marginalization, powerless, cultural imperialism, and violence. Oppression occurs in exploitation as a member who possesses power takes advantage and credit of the handwork and labor of an oppressed member. The most common practice of oppression in the United States is marginalization. Within this type of oppression, members of communities are silenced and deprived of participating in social practices. Marginalization is one of the potential causes of the historical undercount in the 2020 Census as hard-to-count communities have been deprived of participation and access to resources. Powerless oppression refers to when the dominant group strengthens itself by taking away power from the oppressed. Cultural imperialism refers to how the dominant group tries to impose their culture over others and establish it as a norm. By imposing their culture as the dominant culture, it erases the identity of the oppressed. Lastly, structural violence occurs when a person in a position of power tries to humiliate and dehumanize the oppressed (Young 51–57).

In “Mujersita Discourse: A Platform for Latinas’ Subjugated Knowledge,” Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz refers to herself as both “oppressed and impoverished” to signify her positionality in relation to her reality. Isasi-Diaz transition into a higher economic class, the middle class. Although she possesses a higher financial status, she still feels impoverished as due to structural oppression, she will never earn the same income as her white male colleague (46). In other words, by stating she is both oppressed and impoverished, she acknowledges her privilege in her community by belonging to the middle class, but also the structural oppression through income inequality.

A strategy to understand one’s positionality in relation to one’s reality is by analyzing the day-to-day experiences. It is crucial to observe and analyze the day-to-day experiences as it provides oneself and others with a deeper understanding of the challenges that oneself or others face regularly and how that affects one’s reality. Isasi-Diaz best describes the day-to-day experiences as “what is reproduced or repeated in a conscious manner, that which is part of the struggle for life and for liberation” (48). In other words, observing and analyzing day-to-day experiences allows you to reflect on how the decisions, interactions, and experiences of people can vary depending on their reality. Some people are limited in their choices and are constantly challenged to manage their reality. However, day-to-day experiences for someone in a position of privilege and power are different as their reality is different.

A day-to-day experience that continually catches my attention in the ESL program at my community site is students’ attendance as it resembles their reality. As I think about the students’ attendance, I think of all the different challenges they had to overcome to make it to class. And if they are absent, I think of the potential problem that contributed to their decision to miss class.

Achieving English proficiency is the primary goal of many of the ESL students at my community site. However, each student has different motives for why they wish to learn English. As noted on my GivePulse, ESL registration allowed me to hear some of the reasons why students wanted to learn English. Some motives included learning English to enroll in a community college, to obtain a better job position, and to help their children with homework. Regardless of their motivation, I regularly see about 157 students attend ESL classes from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm. To better understand the day-to-day experiences of ESL students, I plan to practice two strategies. First, I could keep track if there’s a pattern in the ESL students’ attendance. As the ESL Coordinator at my community site, I input attendance into their database. With the data, I can analyze if there’s a pattern in the attendance and then continue observing to answer the following questions:

· Does the student occasionally arrive late?

· Are there specific weekdays in which the student misses’ class?

· Is their attendance decreasing?

· Are they participating in class?

If I notice a pattern in the student’s attendance, I have the agency to call students and check-in with them. Having the opportunity to check-in with students allows me to understand their reality better. When I call students, many of them need someone to listen to the challenges that prevented them from attending class. This phone call allows me to listen and understand their day-to-day experiences, while it also allows them to recognize their reality. By recognizing their reality, it helps students move away from feeling ashamed for not attending classes to being sympathetic with themselves as they realize that the structure deprived them of going to class. Another strategy that I could practice is observing and analyzing their performance in the classroom. To understand their day-to-day experiences, I need to be mindful of the events that happen before they arrive in the classroom.

· Are the students arriving to class on time?

· Do the students use public transportation to arrive at the classroom?

· Do they usually arrive in their work clothes?

· Are they turning in their homework on time?

These questions will give me a glimpse of some of the potential challenges that ESL students encounter before arriving to class. At the same time, some of the daily challenges might be greater one day than another and might prevent them from attending classes. Ultimately, these two strategies and the responses to these questions will help me better understand the reality of my community.

By: Karla Hernandez Navarro

Isasi-Diaz, Ada Maria. Decolonizing Epistemologies: Latina/o Theology and Philosophy: Latina/o Theology and Philosophy. Fordham University, 2012. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1c999dr.

Young, Iris Marion. “Five Faces of Oppression.” Oppression, Privilege, and Resistance: Theoretical Perspectives on Racism, Sexism, and Heterosexism. Eds. Lisa Maree Heldke and Peg O’Conor, 37–63. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2004.