Prejudice, Discrimination, Oppression, and Power
Before starting this course, I never knew what prejudice meant; I used discrimination and oppression interchangeably; I never considered power to be related to the pervious terms. After reading chapters four and five in “Is Everyone Really Equal?” by Özlem Sensoy and Robin DiAngelo, I learned the definitions of each term, the differences between them, and how they all work with each other.
I now understand that everyone has their prejudices. Having a prejudice is an opinion of a social group, other than your own, with limited knowledge of the person or group as a whole (Sensoy and DiAngelo 51). This could be meeting a white blonde female and assuming she is not intelligent. Once someone acts on those prejudices, that’s when it is considered discrimination; speaking in a simplistic way/tone to the blond female would be discriminating her. The difference between discrimination and oppression is that to oppress someone, you/your group must be backed by institutional power. In this example, if a female, say, with brunette hair was speaking to her simplistically, it would still be considered discrimination as the brunette does not hold any power over her, what we know of, in this context. However, if it was a male speaking to the blonde, it would be considered oppression as men hold institutional power over women in society.
At the beginning of this course, I thought that black people could be racist—just with less of an effect than when white people are racist. I now understand that in our society, people of color cannot be racist as they do not hold the institution power. Sure, they can have their prejudices, and maybe even act on them to discriminate, but without the power, they cannot oppress/be racist.
It is near impossible for everyone to drop their prejudices, and live in a just society without it, oppression, and discrimination as well. When we catch ourselves or others discriminating or oppressing, we have to learn to understand it. Where is this prejudice coming from? Why do I get to oppress or discriminate these individuals? Who am I to judge? Sure society may say that in some areas you may be superior to other social groups, but who says we have to follow that? As a future educator, it is my responsibility to teach my students that all people, no matter what intersectionalities or challenges they are facing, should be treated equally and loved no matter what their race, sex, gender, age, class, and culture is, and so on. We must better ourselves to create a socially just future and society where every individual can feel worthy enough and thrive.
Works Cited
Sensoy, Ö., & DiAngelo, R. J. (2017). Is everyone really equal?: An introduction to key concepts in Social Justice Education. Teachers College Press.