#institutionalized oppression

[ace-of-song]

You cannot be racist towards white people

You can be prejudiced towards white people, but not racist. Why? Because racism is the systematic and institutionalized oppression of nondominant racial groups. In the United States, whites have always been the dominant group and are responsible for the oppression of people of color. There is no historical precedence in the USA of whites being dominated by people of color in any way even remotely close to slavery or segregation. We are not dealing with racial groups that are all on equal footing. Many white people in my life do not seem to understand how our history has placed them in a position of advantage. Whites have not faced the institutional oppression that people of color have, which does influence race relations today. This post comes in response to several Tumblr posts I've seen lately that attempt to argue that whites experience racism, which is incorrect. True, anyone can be prejudiced towards anyone, but racism is the result of historical domination of one group over another and continued systematic oppression.

[airagorncharda]

even IF the letter of the law stated that everyone in America was SUPPOSED to have equal rights we still wouldn’t be treated equally, because the actual institutions in place to enforce those equal rights are run by human beings with agendas who make choices based on their own bigoted bias

[uwlawracialjustice]

There are just too many stories of oppression or microaggressions that I can share about my last two years at UW Law. It's the compounded effects of all of these stories on an individual that frame the true narrative behind what we mean when we say institutionalized oppression. This includes being asked to represent students of color in every aspect of being a student at UW Law, whether it is for recruiting prospective students, organizing events, or simply speaking about our experience at UW. While we do this because we want this to be a more inclusive school, the vast majority of students spend most of their energy honing their lawyering skills. They have the privilege of not being faced with the daily choice some of us have to make. That is, our background rooted in marginalized communities makes our standing in solidarity with social justice a very REAL and immediate need, not a theoretical hypothetical. As a result, this causes us to be jaded and less tolerant about even the unintentional microaggressions. We can no longer bear the burden of speaking for our communities when we see our classmates and professors apply a middle class white American perspective to all of their analysis. Or hear my male peers overtly and rudely mansplain their way through our female professor's lecture. Or for this institution to allow heavy spending on parties and booze while pro bono projects scramble for monies to help out the communities in need...

[lapisthewaterwitch]

fun fact: america literally didn't care about aids until people started getting it who were not gay, not poor, not brown or black; and even then those people were not sympathized with

[what-they-grow-to-be]

Yes, we can take concrete actions!

I'm a French student in Psychology, at the University of Caen Normandy (UCBN). We are asked during our third year to conduct a research. I chose to work on Tumblr activism, and more precisely, the involvement against systemic / institutionalized oppressions (racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, psychophobia...). I want to prove that Tumblr is an incredible place, which allows people to learn more about oppressions. With this new knowledge, we are able to act in the world that surrounds us, and to change societies. Here's a link to my questionnaire:  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/11PEKhGwWNCQ3YYXsTVlIe1-IsF7FeySF7nctkhwZCNk/viewform Thank you very much for your help!

[where-iz-mah-mind-blog]

Dominance

I heard a guy say, "Assert your dominance, bro" as I'm reading about dominance and it's effects on the subordinates (women & poc) and I actually wanted to cry for myself and for society. Lawd help us.