The “GAP” Between us.
Many minorities suffer from oppression; one specific group that targeted is women. There is the law that control women to distress with their wages. This can build oppression in many positions of jobs that women hold. Women of color suffer form an even more sever gap. For instance, “The Equal Pay Act,” which was signed in 1963, is making it illegal for employers to pay unequal wages to men and women who hold to same job and do the same work. “It affect minority woman the most and they are fare the worst. African-American women earn just 69 cents to every dollar earned by white men, and for Hispanic women that figure drops to merely 60 cents per dollar. Asian Women are the exception, earning 87 cents for every dollar earned by white men,” stated in “The Wage Gap” by Deutsch and Ampersand. I think this is unreasonable that different ethnicity’s being paid unequally when sifting on the same job position. Similarly, in the movie “Pow Wow Highway” by Jonathan Wacks showed how many of the minorities, especially the Cheyenne Indians were bringing stripped from their land and wealth. Buddy Red Bow, who is a tribal activist and opposes a phony land- right react to oppression with political action because he could not could not stand his people being oppressed by white corporate society. He knew 75 percent of them were below the poverty line. Therefore, he took an action by persuaded the council to vote against a strip mining contact on the Northern Cheyenne India Reservation since many of the India territory were already stolen.
I personally think that a higher education level can decrease the convolution of oppression because the advanced education level minorities will have given them better known and respect. Minority can work hard to obtain high education even if there is less opportunity for them comparing to the Anglo-American. I think seeking for opportunities is very important instead of being upsetting to be oppressed. In 1999, my family along with a huge amount of Karen had to escape through the jungle to get to the Thailand-Myanmar border because thousands of Karen was facing an oppressive government. For instance, The Karen people had to hide in the hills of Myanmar because they were an ethnic minority and were being oppressed by their government. They decided to govern themselves, but Burmese soldiers would not let them. They come into the villages, destroying farms houses. My parents had to flee our homeland as most Karen people had to due to the violence in Myanmar. Thousands of the Karen people were killed and they were forced to flee from their homeland. The Karen people had been severely oppressed; they were prevented from advancement in all the fields of human activities. The Karen people were oppressed so they let themselves fall into substance abuse. This situation reminds me of the movie “Pow Wow Highway” because the native Cheyenne Indians were being stripped from their land and being taken over by cooperate America. Karen people and Native Americans still struggle from their freedom, equality, and struggling to defend their basic human right. In this situation like these, Minorities should positively ignore the prejudgment of oppressor, and I think that raise their children to seek education in order to stop oppressors is very important. Proving that they can get an education can help with the success of leading other generation of minorities to follow their example, which is important because it stops an ongoing cycle. Reacting to oppression with education could never be wrong especially since it is just a form of self-empowerment and leadership.
Reacting to oppression with violence would lead to problem. For instance, let say, a skin color person is an employee at a company. His employer is making him work extra hours without paying him. Therefore, he reacts to this situation with violence and anger, which ultimately gets him fired. In the end, violence had greater negatives then positives; it hardly ever leads to a victory over the oppressor. However, if he does not let the oppressor get the upper hand and react with a positive attitude it would lead to the oppressor feeling embarrassed or even sometimes confused. Even if he believes he has the right to react with violence it usually leads to other people getting hurt.
Every day we notice more people of minorities, class, gender, and religion suffer from harassment and oppression every day. Sometime these minorities fall into the hands of the oppressor and let them have control. I thinks Individuals of an oppressed minority should react to bigotry and oppression and not just stand and let it happen. If they decide to react, I think it should not be by violent resistance because there are legal rules in our civilization, and other minorities that might get hurt. Instead, I think they should try to raise their children to obtain higher education levels because education can bring self-sufficiency in many ways.
