The Important Difference(s) Between Prejudice, Discrimination, and Oppression

a brief lesson in Sociology, Critical Race Theory, Critical Social Justice Theory, and How Things Actually Are in American Society

Photo Credit: UnSplash

Prejudice, discrimination, and oppression are three different concepts and realities. Whenever I mention this in any article I get comments. When I teach this in my Sociology classes I get some grumbles. When I get into Facebook arguments with strangers about this,..oh, yeah, I don’t do that anymore. Thankfully!

The thing is, it’s simple. And like all truth, it can hurt and some folks might not like it or want to hear it. Because they do not want it to be true. But it is. It just is. And dealing with this, getting to the bottom of this, accepting this, is the only way to truly work towards viable, actual, real social change and social justice in this society.

So, let’s get to accepting, learning and doing because we really do not have much time.

We have three basic, fundamental, root level systems that drive and shape and contain and constrain all forms of action and context in our society. These root level structures are:

• White Supremacy
• Capitalism
• Patriarchy