The Four I's of Oppression

 Our society and the culture we live in can create miracles. We can drive our energy towards landing a person on the moon. We can create public-serving libraries to educate all for free. But when the normalized ideas of a society are oppressive and harmful, that collective force can have a huge negative impact on our culture and the opportunities available for certain marginalized groups in our culture.

The Four I's of Oppression begin with IDEOLOGICAL ideas. These are the stereotypes we live with that shape our decisions. Girls don't follow those career paths. Men shouldn't stay at home. People of color shouldn't try to be President. Based on what you see around you, ideas have been normalized even if they haven't ever been verbalized. You see them on T.V., in advertising, and in the town you live in.  Even though we have massive technology that allows individuals to see perspectives and opinions from every different place and viewpoint, unfortunately I think that our technology is only making the Ideological Extreme worse. In the past, while you probably read the Newspaper that followed your political leanings, and while you watched the news program that confirmed your bias, now similar content is pushed your way on the internet through ads and social media. It provides no semblance of balance, and without actively seeking other viewpoints, it is easy for a person to suddenly believe that everyone believes this extreme viewpoint to be true. All the things I read confirm it! All the posts agree with me! 

People can find themselves in their own Ideological bubble; a self righteous prison in which they are always right. 

At an individual level, we feel these ideological values through our Interpersonal interactions, the Institutional decisions around us, and we Internalize other people's values as if they were always true and correct. As a mother of 3 children I am so cautious about their use of technology and social media. Even as I love our ability to learn so much from the internet, I worry that technology is a vehicle that can bring extreme and unhealthy ideas into their lives. As young people with limited real world exposure I don't want them thinking that everyone should look like an Airbrushed Image. I don't want them to think that as a young person they will have a nice car or apartment. I don't want them normalizing extreme lifestyles or extreme viewpoints.

Oppression happens when the subjugation of a group of people has been normalized. People don't even think it is happening because it has been an embedded part of the society we live in. It is the way schools are funded in certain neighborhoods. It is in the exclusion of people through Legacy Admissions. It is in the media that shows a dominant narrative and portrays it as the truth. The very word "normalization" had a meaning change in the wake of the American 2016 political election. The link to the Merriam Webster dictionary is here. Instead of describing a 'norm', the noun has taken a much more active and aggressive meaning: "Normalization originally described a return to a state considered normal. Later, it was used to describe the act of making something variable conform to a standard. Recently, we've seen it used to describe a change in what's considered standard. In this new 'normalization', the standards change to make something considered an outlier 'normal' - not the other way around."

I am all for the normalization of inclusion, kindness and charity. Perhaps that is the way to fight the Four I's of Oppression and the normalization of hate.

Alan Johnson and the Introduction to Privilege, Power and Difference

Alan Johnson argues that before change can happen, we must acknowledge and name the problem we seek to change. The difficulty in naming a problem that we are all a part of, just by our very existence, is that people can equate the naming of a problem with blame. 

On page 11, Johnson writes "you can't deal with a problem if you don't name it; once you name it, you can think, talk and write about it". If a problem is not named, it becomes the elephant in the room that everybody tiptoes around, while never acknowledging how much peoples lives are constricted by the presence of an elephant in the room. The problem Alan Johnson wants to name is the inequalities we know to exist based on people's gender, race and sexual orientation. Unlike social class, which can be traversed through social mobility; gender, race and sexual identity are inherent qualities that people are born with. They cannot be shed easily by a promotion or change of address. These are connected to our very selves. 

Johnson argues that contrary to a widely held belief that people are afraid of differences, he sees people curious about the world and people around them. He argues that "If we feel afraid, it isn't what we don't know that frightens us, it's what we think we do know". (p.16) This reminds me of Ted Lasso's "Be Curious" speech when he tells his arch-nemesis to stop dismissing him based on his first impressions and assumptions. If we all got to know the person, instead of making assumptions born out of stereotypes our curiosity would make our knowledge of others deeper and more personal.

The Diversity Wheel (p.18, by M Loden and J. Rosener) shows all the ways people can be labeled, both for unchanging characteristics (in the inner circle) and changeable characteristics. For myself, I could be labeled a 44 year old white New Zealand-born able-bodied heterosexual female. As Johnson writes: "the trouble around diversity, then isn't just that people differ from one another. The trouble is produced by a world organized in ways that encourages people to use difference to include or exclude, reward or punish, credit or discredit, elevate or oppress, value or devalue, leave alone or harass." (p. 19)

If you would like to fill out the Diversity Wheel for yourself, you can here

Introduction time!

I am Mary, a music teacher going through the Credential Review Program to get certified in Rhode Island. I originally started teaching English as a Second Language in Japan, New Zealand (where I am from) and the United States. I have 3 children and spent about 7 years teaching a parent/child music program and ukulele. This led me to my current position, teaching Music in an elementary school. I love making music with people and value the community that it creates!

 I have a dog, Archie, and cat, Socks. 

The fireplace is our favorite place to hang out on nights that I am not at class!

After making music, my second favorite thing is gardening. After moving through many countries and states, it is nice to finally have a Forever House with a garden to play in.