#structural oppression

[unwelcome-ozian]

In 2022, the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics published a report describing involuntary commitment in the country’s healthcare system as carceral (punitive, prison-like): “While masquerading as more humane and medicalized, such coercive modalities nevertheless further reinforce the systems, structures, practices, and policies of structural oppression and white supremacy.” outpatient treatment relies heavily upon psychotropic drugs.

[odinsblog]

“The ‘unborn’ are a convenient group of people to advocate for. They never make demands of you; they are morally uncomplicated, unlike the incarcerated, addicted, or the chronically poor; they don’t resent your condescension or complain that you are not politically correct; unlike widows, they don’t ask you to question patriarchy; unlike orphans, they don’t need money, education, or childcare; unlike aliens, they don’t bring all that racial, cultural, and religious baggage that you dislike; they allow you to feel good about yourself without any work at creating or maintaining relationships; and when they are born, you can forget about them, because they cease to be unborn. You can love the unborn and advocate for them without substantially challenging your own wealth, power, or privilege, without re-imagining social structures, apologizing, or making reparations to anyone. They are, in short, the perfect people to love if you want to claim you love Jesus, but actually dislike people who breathe. Prisoners? Immigrants? The sick? The poor? Widows? Orphans? All the groups that are specifically mentioned in the Bible? They all get thrown under the bus for the unborn.”

― Methodist Pastor David Barnhart

[chrysalis-the-butterfly]

Everyone’s always like, “Oh, Icarus shouldn’t have flown too close to the Sun, that’s why his wings melted,” but no-one thinks to ask what kind of bozo would make the wings using wax in the first place.  

[coquelicoq]

"There's the question of soft policing, which I don't think is actually soft. It's really rough and hard. People who are coming out of prison are going through reentry, and one of the things they have to do is pee in a cup the social worker gets. They come up dirty with that particular test, and then they're revoked back into the carceral state. This is policing in the form of probation and parole. We understand other forms of 'soft policing' that involve the 'child welfare protection' system, which is just a law enforcement agency. People think about it as services, but folks from the Movement for Family Power, for example, just put out a new report that helps us to really understand that actually pulling your child away from you is one of the most horrific forms of violence that can be done to a human being. We don't see that as deep policing. [...]

I'm thinking a lot about Liat Ben-Moshe who is also in Chicago, and her book called Decarcerating Disability. And it's all about the way that everybody is now saying, 'Mental health--what we need is a different force that's going to handle mental health.' But what are we really saying there? And what are we trying to handle? And what does that look like for the people who are going to be the targets of this? We have to be thinking about the root of all of these kinds of systems and all of these kinds of ideologies and all these visions in order to be able to get to the world we want."

Mariame Kaba, "'Community Matters. Collectivity Matters.': Interview by Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger" in We Do This 'Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice

Original talk was on episode 253 of the AirGo podcast, July 2020

[navigatethestream]

Being in structural opposition to the status quo because of one’s identity, however, is quite different from being consciously and actively opposed to the status quo because one is a radical and understands how the system works

an excerpt from Where’s the Revolution? by Barbara Smith, 1993

[dt-two]

As he stepped out of the pipe and jumped onto the grass, Mario wiped off the sh*t stains from the travel and noticed the calming breeze as he began his walk toward the Mushroom Kingdom. Like most days, he was forced to hammer down on some goombas, screw over a couple shyguys’ plans to dispose of him, and become intoxicated with pyrotechnics after ingesting some strange flowers he found inside a questionable box.

Once he got to the palace, Toad let him in as Mario wanted to see the pretty Princess Peach, but he was too late. She was nowhere to be found. It seems as though the dastardly Bowser already kidnapped her.

“What. The. F*ck?!”

This event happens more often than it should. Time after time, Mario often rescues Princess alone, sometimes with Luigi and sometimes with Yoshi, but the Mushroom Kingdom never responds appropriately. The Kingdom’s Army is a joke. They’re all little underlings with mushroom hats and no real skills except for one. The technology is outdated so security systems are nonexistent, and nobody even notices she’s missing sometimes.

“I’m just a f*cking plumber too!”

At the same time, the gold always remains, and nobody else gets kidnapped. Bowser and his minions never seem to take anything else.

As he thought about this, he said to Toad, “I’m tired of this. I’ll just relax and wait until tomorrow to get her. Bowser doesn’t even do anything to her when he kidnaps her except keep her in a cage or something. I’m tired of cleaning up your kingdom’s mess. She needs to stop letting herself be a victim.”

Immediately after he said this, the Princess, who had simply decided to shower in a different bathroom on the other side of the palace, came up from behind.

“EXCUSE ME? DOESN’T DO ANYTHING TO ME? RESCUE ME LATER?”

After smashing Mario in the face with a radish, she went on a tearful diatribe, sharing stories of Bowser’s sexual assaults on her, that “cage” of fetishes, and the revoltingly bizarre way that he makes her call him “Mr. Bowser” as he dons a human mask.

With angry tears, she yelled, “YOU NEED SENSITIVITY TRAINING, MARIO.”

She then talked about how her role as Princess has been meaningless. Her father makes all the decisions, and because nothing valuable ever gets stolen, nobody finds it worthwhile to invest in new methods of protecting her except adding another Toad clone to her front door.

“Everyone thinks it’s a joke that ‘the cute wittle pwincess gets captured by the scawy gween beast’, but it’s frightening. I’ve been traumatized. Do you think I want you to always have to rescue me, huh? DO YOU?!”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know…”

“It’s okay. I’ll never be anything more than a pretty face for this Kingdom.”

[coquelicoq]

Hey, I saw you only allow messages from followers which is totally cool! I'm just sending this because I really like the prison abolition work you've been posting. I'm currently reading The Violence of Organized Forgetting by Giroux which is about how neo-liberal politics have created a new "truth" in society that marginalized populations are disposable in order to serve the interests of money, and how difficult it is to think outside of this idea. It's more focused on how this idea frames politics and discourse in the whole of American society than just policing. However, it definitely hits on a lot of questions of how things are framed in order to justify all kinds of systemic violence, including policing. Thanks for your posts, they are a really interesting companion to this book!

that sounds really interesting, thank you for the rec!

[dt-two]

me: Yeah, I got promoted, and I’m being asked to do things above my pay grade without being compensated. I was even told that I wasn’t qualified to do some of these requests because I’m not even supposed to have access to the tools I need simply because of my current job title.

you: You’re really bright and rose really quickly so I’m happy for you.

me: Yeah, and I guess you have to struggle for a while. I just wish that I’d get that promotion if I’m being asked to do things at that level.

you: Listen to me. Don’t get ahead of yourself. SLOW DOWN.

outside me: Haha of course those are just dreams. I don’t expect things to happen just like that in the real world.

rational me: I don’t get why you want me to slow down in terms of my success. I mean, I’m not the type to feel entitled to things. I know I need to put in my work. There are probably things I still have to learn, and I know I’ll get better as I gain more experience. I just believe that people should be compensated when they go above and beyond. Going above and beyond to the next pay grade is not something that is a job requirement, and doing so will help fuel the broken system if you expect people to keep working longer hours with less pay. You helped me out a lot, and maybe you’re saying this just because you want me to be careful and play the game well.

inner me: You should want me to get another promotion. You should want the system to change so people are adequately compensated. Long unpaid hours should not be the norm in a field with high burnout. You’ve become one of them now. Don’t oppress me. F*ck you.