Social Justice for Oppressed Populations

1. SOCIAL JUSTICE FOR
OPPRESSED
POPULATIONS

2. SOCIAL JUSTICE & OPPRESSION
• Social Justice: The view that everyone deserves equal
economic, political and social rights and opportunities
(NASW)
• Oppression: The unjust or cruel exercise of authority or
power (Merriam-Webster)

3. SOCIAL JUSTICE & OPPRESSION
• Social differences create “isms”
• Racism
• Ethnocentrism
• Classism
• Ableism
• Ageism
• Heterosexism
• (Anti-pluralism)
• Sexism
• Lookism
• Religious
Oppression/Belief in One
True God (monotheism?)

4. OPPRESSED POPULATIONS INCLUDE:
• Poor
• People of color
• LGBT
• Women
• Children
• Disabled

5. FOUR TYPES OF OPPRESSION
• Primary: blatant, through force or deprivation
• Secondary: one benefits from the oppression of others
• economic exploitation of poor, non-unionized, workers who can only obtain
part-time or temporary work offered by employers
• Tertiary: when one a member seeks acceptance by the dominant group
by abandoning his/her own
• Mixed: involves a combination of the above
• (Hanna et al., 2000)

6. FIVE FACES OF OPPRESSION
 Exploitation - is the act of using people’s labors to produce profit while
not compensating them fairly
 Marginalization - the act of relegating or confining a group of people to a
lower social standing or outer limit or edge of society. Overall, it is a
process of exclusion
 Powerlessness - the powerless are dominated by the ruling class and
are situated to take orders and rarely have the right to give them
• (Iris Marion Young)

7. FIVE FACES OF OPPRESSION
 Cultural imperialism - The groups that have power in society control how
the people in that society interpret and communicate
 Violence - Members of some groups live with the knowledge that they
must fear random, unprovoked attacks on their persons or property.
These attacks do not necessarily need a motive but are intended to
damage, humiliate, or destroy the person
• (Iris Marion Young)
• https://youtu.be/5yj-AYGOdXY

8. COMBINATIONS OF OPPRESSION
 Non-prejudiced, non-discriminator
 “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being gay; and I would hire
someone who is gay”
 Non-prejudiced, discriminator
 “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being gay; but I wouldn’t hire
someone who is gay because it could cause problems at work”

9. COMBINATIONS OF OPPRESSION
 Prejudiced, non-discriminator
 “I think being gay is wrong; but I would still hire someone who is gay if they
are the best person for the job”
 Prejudiced, discriminator
 “I think being gay is wrong and I would refuse to hire anyone who is gay”

10. SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONISM
 Is a theory of knowledge that holds that characteristics typically
thought to be immutable and solely biological—such as gender, race,
class, ability, and sexuality—are products of human definition and
interpretation shaped by cultural and historical contexts
 (Subramaniam 2010)

11. SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONISM
 Categorization is made based on body features, they are given
meaning and then used to divide people into these groups
 Categories are not “natural” or fixed and the boundaries around them
are always shifting—they are contested and redefined in different
historical periods and across different societies

12. SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONISM
 Examples
 One-drop Rule: regardless of their appearance, individuals with
any African ancestor are considered black
 Gender: what may be believed as masculine features or feminine
behavior in one society may be the exact opposite of what is
considered natural for men and women in another
 Social status. College professor versus plumber.

13. SOCIAL CONSTRUCT & OPPRESSION
• Social construction of differences between people are created
(constructed) for political, social, or economic gain, such as:
• "women are too emotionally unstable to vote" (because men want to stay
in power)
• "blacks are inferior; therefore slavery is acceptable" (because whites felt
they were superior and wanted to stay in power)
• "poor people are poor due to their own laziness and inferiority" (instead of
due to market influences, economic exploitation, or unlivable wages)

14. RACIAL FORMATION
• The Myth of Race
• Social construct of race since the birth of the U.S.
• White European descendants viewed themselves as an
innately superior in intelligence and ability (5)
• Dred Scott case – imported slaves and their descendants
were members of a lesser race

15. RACIAL FORMATION
• Social construct of race since the birth of the U.S.
• White European descendants viewed themselves as an
innately superior in intelligence and ability
• Dred Scott case – imported slaves and their descendants
were members of a lesser race

16. RACIAL FORMATION
• Act of land ownership an indication of superior
intelligence and character
• Class status and land ownership used to exclude African
Americans and poor whites from voting

17. RACIAL FORMATION
• Race - The Census Bureau defines race as a person’s self-
identification with one or more social groups
• White, Black or African American, Asian, American
Indian and Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian and Other
Pacific Islander, or some other race. Survey respondents
may report multiple races
• U.S. Census Bureau

18. RACIAL FORMATION
• Ethnicity determines whether a person is of Hispanic
origin or not
• Hispanic or Latino and Not Hispanic or Latino
• Hispanics may report as any race
• U.S. Census Bureau

19. RACIAL FORMATION
• Hispanic: a Spanish-speaking person living in the U.S.
• Does include persons from Spain
• Latino: person of Latin American origin, including
Caribbean (anything south of border)
• Does include Brazil, but not Spain
• Spanish: the language Hispanics speak
• Spaniard: a person born in Spain

20. RACIAL FORMATION
• Ethnicity refers to shared cultural practices,
perspectives, and distinctions that set apart one group
of people from another = ethnicity is a shared cultural
heritage
• The most common characteristics: ancestry, a sense of
history, language, religion, and forms of dress

21. RACIAL FORMATION
• Racial Identity: a sense of group or collective identity based on
the person’s perception that he or she shares a common heritage
with a particular racial group
• What are some reasons why a person would identify with a
race versus another?
• Rachel Dolezal

22. RACIAL FORMATION
• Racism. An ideology or belief system that hierarchically
organizes groups into different “races,” such that some groups
are believed to be superior or inferior to others; and a system of
inequality made up of policies and practices in which opportunity
is enabled or limited based on racial identity.

23. CREATING WHITE PRIVILEGE
• White Privilege. The benefits, advantages, and opportunities
available to people who are identified as white; these privileges
can be economic, cultural, social, psychological, etc.
• How White Privilege works

24. CREATING WHITE PRIVILEGE
• In what ways does White Privilege manifests itself today?
• The Privilege Test

25. CREATING WHITE PRIVILEGE
• Redlining. Real estate related practice that puts services, financial and
otherwise, out of reach for residents of certain areas based on race or
ethnicity.
• It normally includes the systematic denial of mortgages, insurance, loans and
other financial services based on location (and that geography area’s history)
rather than an individual's qualifications and creditworthiness. Redlining is
most palpable in minority neighborhoods.
• The Disturbing History of the Suburbs