Oppression
1. Areas of Oppression
Identifying Oppression
We helped students understand 7 areas where people experience oppression, defined as “one group using power (real or perceived) against another group on the basis of a characteristic.”
Students broke into seven small groups that defined each oppression and listed as many examples as they could. This was done on large sheets of post-it paper so each group could present their definition and examples. The lists were posted in the room where they remained all semester. We referred to them often as issues arose in our discussions.
The 7 Areas of Oppression we focused on are:
1.) Age
2.) Gender
3.) Religion
4.) Sexual Orientation
5.) Race
6.) Class
7.) Ability/Disability
These areas were integrated into future activities such as conducting family member interviews (asked people in their families about 2 or 3 of these oppressions and how they struggled with them and/or overcame them), and students were encouraged to tie the content of their video blogs to one or more of these.
“The students who had this class, they don’t fight as much. They aren’t as easily influenced.”
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2. Racism
Confronting Racism in Ourselves and Others
“I learned that I’m wonderful!”
We dealt with race extensively in this course. “A Raisin in the Sun” shows how a family deals with being offered money to not move into a white neighborhood. We talked about the fact that two of us (the instructors) were white and our ability and inability to relate to and understand our predominantly African American students. The official pardon of white police officers for beating an African American man happened during the semester, and many of our students joined the public protest in the streets.
We also read an essay by Maya Angelou called “Our Boys” and held a discussion based on their responses to these questions.
One of the most powerful experiences we shared was watching a documentary about the Children’s March in Birmingham. We were riveted watching the children do what the adults dared not. We highly recommend watching this video together and having a discussion. We used organizing questions as a tool to help students take notes during the video and as the basis for our discussion.
Here is information about this video, along with a site for teaching materials that accompany it:
“The Children’s March” tells the story of how the young people of Birmingham, Ala., braved fire hoses and police dogs in 1963 and brought segregation to its knees. Their heroism complements discussions about the ability of today’s young people to be catalysts for positive social change. Produced by Teaching Tolerance in association with Home Box Office (HBO), “The Children’s March,” a film by Tell the Truth Pictures also will air on HBO in 2005.
Teaching materials can be found at http://www.tolerance.org.
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