Preview

Elizabeth Martinez Oppressions Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
539 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Elizabeth Martinez Oppressions Analysis
Generally speaking, “Oppressions Olympics “ coined by feminist Elizabeth Martinez who challenged the “hierarchy of oppressions” points to inequalities faced by a group may be considered by another group as less important. For instance, I believe the me culture has a huge impact on this behavior. In other words, my issues are more important and carry weight because I am the one baring the burden of my oppression. Since I don’t live in your skin to experience your issues, I don’t have a sense of gauging how equally important your oppression feels. Even though the issues are diverse in scope and category. Evidently, the typical human response is to categorize oppressions and rank them. For instance, a gay white man might be oppressed because there are laws preventing him from marrying his partner, however, he could be highly educated and fit “the perfect key “white male profile and also be a power broker when …show more content…
With that said, the intention is to let our voices be heard and not allow other marginalized groups to be overlooked, in the process we want our cause to be more pressing than that of the “other”. Therefore, Arquette’s natural response is how the construct of our thinking process works within the spectrum of the politics of divide. It is going to take deep introspection and work to not fall into this kind of thought process that leads to these types of responses when we are caught off guard.
Every group that experiences injustice and oppression should be able to relate without forcing to be experiencing the same discrimination as one group. Society’s power structure is the tilt against or the groups. The unfortunate part of this issue is there are people who don’t have a choice or cannot disguise their category because they have no control over their marginalization. All of us have biases that prevent all of us from being

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Marilyn Frye Oppression

    • 381 Words
    • 2 Pages

    I was always oblivious to the meaning of oppression, I didn’t want to believe it was real. I just wanted to move on with my life and have oppression not exist, but it does and it’s worse than I could have imagined. In Marilyn Frye’s article “Oppression,” she suggests oppression as a, “double bin – situations in which options are reduced to a very few and all of them expose one to penalty, censure or deprivation” (42). I define oppression as a double bind that lasts a lifetime, that no matter how hard you try, you are stuck to a standard. I agree with Frye even though this was no always the case, I was staring at a single bar in the birdcage.…

    • 381 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Linda Chavez is a prominent Hispanic-American conservative Political Columnist. She has written many political columns over the years, using her personal experiences and political expertise to develop a rapport with her readers. Ms. Chavez utilizes several sound writing techniques to engage the reader. She employs factual evidence, appeals to logic and appeals to emotion.…

    • 488 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    With the modern world’s hyper-sensitive awareness of race and gender and religion and sexual preferences and politics and, well, everything, making a few misplaced generalizations is inevitable. Although stereotyping can be false and misleading, it does not have the same implications that actively discriminating has.…

    • 534 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    These are all bound together and inseparable elements. These foundations are largely materialist, describing disadvantaged identities as historically constituted, rather than innate. Focusing exclusively on one dynamic while ignoring the intersections of other structures of disadvantage often produce biased and inaccurate generalizations. Intersectionality recognizes that multiple oppressions are not each suffered separately but rather as a single, synthesized experience. Rather than having any unified canon, this concept draws primarily from direct experiences of the…

    • 1162 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Bell Hooks Research Paper

    • 644 Words
    • 3 Pages

    We live in a world where there are numerous discriminations: race, religion, sex, age, or sexual orientation. bell hooks has eloquently explained multiple reasons why the black population is discriminated against in an educational setting, “...most white folks are rarely, if ever, in a situation where they must listen to black women lecture to them.” (hooks, 31) Daily we hear about the killings of transsexual men and women, as well as multiple examinations talking about men who receive more money then women in the workplace for the same job. Carl Grant intelligently said, “Another factor stimulating the change is the acceptance of the importance of social cultural factors in learning and the movement toward challenging traditional assumptions and envisioning multiple possibilities for change.” (Grant, 1) The discrimination I’m talking about most people don’t understand or even see,…

    • 644 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Otsuka Oppression

    • 905 Words
    • 4 Pages

    According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, oppression is a concept that means unjust or cruel exercise of authority or power. At first, it was difficult for me to fully comprehend the meaning of oppression. However, following our class readings, this concept has become clearer to me. As mentioned by Simone Weil, “Human beings are so made that the ones who do the crushing feel nothing; it is the person crushed who feels what is happening. Unless one has placed oneself on the side of the oppressed, to feel with them, one cannot understand.” In order to understand oppression you need to walk in ones shoes. The class readings gave us an inside look and life examples of how oppression comes about. Oppression is not something that happens overnight.…

    • 905 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Discrimination Worksheet

    • 464 Words
    • 2 Pages

    • How is discrimination faced by one identity group (race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, gender, sexual orientation, age, or disability) the same as…

    • 464 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Discrimination Worksheet

    • 445 Words
    • 2 Pages

    * How is discrimination faced by one identity group (race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, gender, sexual…

    • 445 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    This is when privilege determines who is the “Us,” and who is the “Them.” In “A Question of Class,” Dorothy Allison shares her struggles as a lesbian coming from a low-income background. She expresses that being poor label her as the “other.” However, her white privilege makes her have more opportunities compared to her black peers. Allison argues that “The horror of class stratification, racism, and prejudice is that some people begin to believe that the security of their families and communities depends on the oppression of others, that for some to have good lives, there must be others whose lives are truncated and brutal” (Allison 35). Based on her experience, she observes that people, in order to keep or protect their privilege, have to oppress the…

    • 1274 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    “The craving for equality can express itself either as a desire to pull everyone down to our own level (by belittling them, excluding them, tripping them up) or as a desire to raise ourselves up along with everyone else (by acknowledging them, helping them, and rejoicing in their success)” (Neitzsche, & Handwerk, 2000, p.198).…

    • 3635 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Primarily it’s important to define the concept of oppression. Oppression implies to "any way in which humans as individuals or as groups, are treated with less than complete respect." (McCullough, p6). Many people engage in conversations that discuss various oppressions such as racism, sexism, heterosexism and classism, but rarely do we discuss how these oppressions interact with each other.…

    • 624 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    People that experience oppression have a different life-view than the rest of the world. They view life in a darker, more negative way, which is justifiable through their experiences. Their world is a much scarier place; they face the threat of violence, less civil rights, and being treated as less of a person. Their oppression makes them stronger in their own bodies. They learn to love and accept themselves even when others can not. The people that are oppressed by society are strengthened by their oppression because they learn to be strong. In a way, these oppressed people are strengthened by their oppression. They gain strength and immunity to society's harmful ways.…

    • 309 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As a woman of color and member of the LGBT+ community, I have experienced prejudice in various, intimate forms. As patriotic as I am, I cannot help but feel sorrow at the injustices in our society. I possess hope for the future that conditions will better for all peoples in our country. My conviction is that the first step to acquiring social justice is erasing ignorance. Importance lies in recognizing the signs of institutionalized injustice. In relation to the well known idiom "ignorance is bliss," the bliss of the ignorant rests upon the unjust treatment of those suffering oppression. On the other hand, the oppressed may also be ignorant of their oppression as a deliberate means to keep them oppressed when they could be…

    • 523 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Discrimination is still among our world today, and stays a constant issue. Many people would argue this accusation, and try to believe that the world today is better than it was years ago, but the fact is that it is still the same. Discrimination is not just among races or ethnic groups, it is among different genders, religions, and marriage partners. Today people argue about discrimination all of the time. Why is it still among us? What can be done? Why don’t we just let it be? But, in fact, none of these questions are ever solved and might never be answered because of the contrasting beliefs of society. Society has put discrimination into stereotyping and many other different forms, but the point is that discrimination is here to stay and…

    • 639 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Within my personal experience, I have found the average human being to feel uncomfortable talking about any difficulties regarding race or oppression. Most individuals would rather not talk about race or oppression at all. I have began to reminisce on my child hood and have became aware that there was never much conversation regarding race or oppression. I look back and find it amazing that this was never an issue discussed being how it continues to be a major issue in our society. The reason I feel like this was never addressed is because people including my family, decided that pushing issues of race and oppression aside is the best choice. From a young age in America we are taught that we shouldn't comment on people’s race so that results in individuals feeling as if they should never talk about these…

    • 526 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays