Thursday: 1,500 Individuals, 1,500 Ideas

The Cycle of Oppression

This cycle starts internally with the fear of difference. Seeing someone different from us causes us, as a natural response of human behavior, resort to fighting, fleeing or freezing. That then leads us to a stereotype (not to be confused with a prejudice). A stereotype is “value neutral,” they are generalizations with no value. When a stereotype becomes a prejudice, a value has been added to a generalization, whether positive or negative. It becomes discrimination, and becomes external as soon as action is taken. When groups start acts of discrimination is when it becomes institutional oppression. And finally when an individual starts blaming themselves, saying “it must be me” it becomes internalized oppression.

I always thought I understood what an “ism” was. Sexism. Racism. Classism. What I didn’t understand was that is was that it stemmed from fear of difference. Why be afraid of differences? There are people who strive to be different, but being different causes society to oppress you at a certain times.  And it’s strange that we can use stereotype and prejudice as synonyms but they turn out to be very different things that most of us weren’t able to grasp at first. To be honest, it’s hard to grasp anything at this conference at first. As soon as you feel comfortable about a topic, as if you understand it fully, you’re pushed to discomfort and forced to see more than just your solution or your region’s solution but you start to see how 1,500 individuals have at least 1,500 ideas about the same thing. Someone said that we could talk about a single subject, a single activity, for an entire day. I don’t see why we shouldn’t keep these conversations going. 

~ Y-Binh N., Class III