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(Episode previously named “Oppression”)
In this episode, Dani discusses what oppression is & how it functions in US society.
For links & recommendations, view full episode notes.
Dani is honest and refreshing in her takes on the world and society. Listen as she explains how she’s come to understand the world through kindness, both towards ourselves and everything else.
[0:00] Hi there! My name is Dani and this is Understanding Kindness. I’m so glad you could join us today, thanks for being here! Today I want to talk about oppression and suffering. Oof, I know this sounds like it’s gonna be a dark, depressing episode, but I’m going to do my best to not make that so. I want to empower us all to be anti-oppressionists and to do the work of anti-oppression. It’s much simpler than you may be thinking, and it all comes back to Y-O-U, which as we know, is the one thing that we actually have the ability to change in this world. In this week’s episode, we’re back with some recommendations! I won’t be revealing them yet, but they’ll be lots of them in today’s episode. Let’s jump into it then. Welcome to this episode of Understanding Kindness.
[0:52] (Theme).
[0:59] Let me first define oppression. According to Merriam-Webster, oppression is unjust or cruel exercise of authority or power; to oppress is to crush or burden by abuse of power or authority, or to burden spiritually or mentally. Next let’s define power as it is used in these definitions. Power, here, is possession of control, authority, or influence over others, or a controlling group. These are the definitions we’ll be working with and referring to when discussing today’s topic.
[1:33] Probably the broadest, and arguably most devastating, form of oppression is systemic oppression. Systemic oppression is that which occurs at the systemic level. For example, government policy-making, educational funding & policies, healthcare policies. These are the oppressions that affect us systemically because we depend on them to survive and live our lives. Where government funding for education goes, who is allowed in which bathroom, who has access to birth control or family planning. This is systemic oppression. We don’t see or hear these things happen everyday, but they affect our everyday lives and the choices we can make for ourselves. If we think about it, government policies in general only work because some people agreed on them for everyone else and those people got some other people to enforce those policies and now everyone just goes along with it. If we get to the link at the top of the chain (ie. the policy-makers) and remove those in the link that cause the oppression, replacing them with anti-oppressionists, we create anti-oppression here in the systems. If we think about it in a super simplified way, oppression only occurs because people continue to oppress others, and allow others to be oppressed. People feel the need to have power over someone else.
[2:53] This is icky. Do you like that feeling when someone has power over you (outside of consensual sexual situations of course)? Well, I’m gonna guess no. Stop allowing others to be oppressed then. Vote locally for those who are also anti-oppressionists. When you see or hear oppressive policies at your place of work or your school, make noise about it. Talk to your peers about it first if that makes it easier. I’m sure you’ll find many people feel the same way as you do. If you’re fighting for others’ rights, rights that you don’t even have to think about yourself, and lose your job because of it or get expelled because of it, you’ll have an easier time finding another job or another school than the person you were standing up for. The least you can do is show that person that they do matter and their existence just as they are is valid and worth fighting for. Show them that they’re not alone. Stand up for other groups now, because there will be a day when your group needs standing up for. Let’s stand together and fight for each other.
[3:53] The next form of oppression, if we’re getting smaller here, is what I like to call blatant oppression. This is oppression that is obvious to us everyday, but in many ways has become normalized. This is things labeled “boy” or “girl”, “men” or “women”; this is allowing others’ entry based on their appearance; this is locking people up in cages until someone else says they can leave; this is locking non-human animals in cages and never allowing them to live their lives as they want; this is eating other beings. All of these things in our US culture and society have been made “normal”, they’ve become normalized and part of our everyday lives for most of us. So normal in fact, that we don’t even question whether they are ethical or not, or if we were in charge if we would be doing the same things. These are things that we “just do”. We don’t even think about them because that’s just the way we do things. So what if someone is locked up for most of their life; that’s just how things work. Lots of times the system catches the right person and when it doesn’t, the wrong person just has to suffer. It’s not me locked up, so it’s fine.
[5:06] Sometimes I really wonder if people understand that if this person just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, they can also just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or maybe it’s not a matter of the wrong place and wrong time, maybe it’s being the wrong species. Sure, it’d be cool to be a lion or a tiger, but of course not a lion or tiger in captivity. Surely if my choices were between being a non-human animal in captivity and being a human animal not locked behind bars, I’d choose the human animal everyday. Surely, though, we do not have that choice. The lion or tiger locked up behind bars in a zoo did not choose to be a lion or tiger, just as we did not choose to be human animals. None of us had a choice in being here so let’s just make this as easy as possible for all of us, huh? Stop oppressing others, no matter who they are or what species they are apart of.
[6:05] The final form of oppression I’d like to discuss today are the covert oppressions. These ones mainly include gender roles and microaggressions. I’m sure there are more that would be included in here, but I’m just going to discuss these 2. I believe these covert gender oppressions drive many of the other oppressions and individual maladies we face; I’ll discuss microaggressions in a little bit. Femininity and masculinity are to be performed at all times, no matter what, according to society at least. If there is one chink in your armor, it will be noticed and possibly lead to your oppression. Even those of us who do not believe we are oppressed in these ways, experience these things, and that is how we pass along the message of “that’s how we’ve always done it” and continue oppressing others. Ask yourself, when thinking about going outside with shorts on and not having shaved your legs in months, how would that feel? Would it be no big deal? Would it be terrifying? The answers to those questions say a lot about how you were raised and your beliefs. If you would feel terrified to do this, you are being oppressed. If you are so terrified to go out in public not being perfectly hairless, that is society using shame and judgment to oppress you and to do what “everyone’s always done” and not what you want to do.
[7:31] Now ask yourself, can I cry in public and not be or feel judged? Can I show a wide range of emotions, or do I have to swallow them down and never let them show? The answers to these also say a lot about how you were raised and your beliefs. If you don’t feel that you can express emotions to others, you are being oppressed. If you don’t feel as if you could shed but a tear in public, that is society using shame and judgment to oppress you, to “man up”, not to show your natural wide range of emotions. One more, ask yourself, can I go out in public wearing literally whatever I want, or don’t want? Is there a specific dress code I have to follow to even be allowed in public? The answers to all of these questions say a lot about our society. What we deem acceptable, and for whom they are acceptable. For those whom they are not acceptable, they are oppressed. And as we can see, everything in our society seems to oppress someone. None of us are totally liberated from oppression and the suffering it causes because of the society we live in.
[8:46] Racial oppression can be found in all 3 of these categories. We see systemic racial oppression with things like red lining, gerrymandering, the school-to-prison pipeline, the police system, and many, many more, I truly could go on and on. Blatant racial oppressions are things like locking up people of color in cages for minor offenses, paying people of color lower wages than white people, not hiring people of color, only hiring people of color to fit a “diversity quota”, not listening to people of color, and, again, many, many more. Covert racial oppressions include things like microaggressions, or the everyday intentional or unintentional verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights or insults which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target people based solely on their marginalized group membership (that definition from St. Wirth on urban dictionary). These forms of oppression affect us all, but as we can see, affect people of color disproportionately. This has been the case for centuries and it continues because we allow it to.
[9:58] Oppression of non-human animals occurs in all 3 categories as well. Non-human animal oppression on the systemic level looks like our justice system deciding who gets “personhood” granted to them and who doesn’t, who is treated as a living being and who isn’t, based on made up laws some people thought up. Blatant non-human animal oppression looks like locking non-human animals in cages and never allowing them to live in their natural habitat (claiming that a life in captivity is better than a natural life), it’s the hunting of non-human animals, owning non-human animals, etc., etc. Covert oppressions against non-human animals is eating animals, our language surrounding animals, and more. These oppressions do not allow non-human animals to just live their lives. These oppressions against non-human animals create a slippery slope for us human animals to oppress other human animals. Our tolerance of these oppressions is what perpetuates them. We are the reason they continue; and they will continue until we do something about it.
[11:09] Whether you’re being oppression at the systemic level, on a blatant level, or in a covert manner, you are being oppressed in some way. That means that you can understand oppression and what it feels like to be oppressed. In the understanding of your feelings, you can understand the feelings of others. You can understand that the oppression of one is the oppression of us all; that your oppression is tied to others’ oppression; that the only thing to do is end all oppression. If you truly understand oppression, you will not be able to do nothing. It is your life on the line, it is all of our lives on the line. We must fight for our right to live our lives as we want to. And we must fight for others’ rights to live their lives as they want to. None of us are free until we are all free. Vote in your local elections, they make the most direct change to your life. So vote if you are able to, vote for those that can’t. Some blatant oppressions are not in our direct control, but those that are, we can stop doing them. Remember, we are the reason that these oppressions continue. We can control the covert oppressions that we cause, so learn about them and stop doing them. Each of us can change the future. Our actions and our voices can change the future. Start doing things now; your awareness and behavior change is the path. To learn more, here is a broad list of media that I’ve consumed that discusses oppression or is done by marginalized people: the Bitchy Shitshow podcast & YouTube channel [no longer available], The Story of Stuff Project on YouTube and The Story of Stuff book by Annie Leonard, The Bearded Vegans podcast, the Normalizing Non-Monogamy podcast, the GenderReveal podcast, The Vegan Vanguard podcast, Aphro-ism by Aph Ko & Syl Ko, Another Round podcast, Sooo Many White Guys podcast, The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, 2 Dope Queens podcast, ThoughtSlime on YouTube, anything done by Chesca Leigh or by Christopher-Sebastian McJetters, Sisterhood of the Traveling Mgowo podcast, The Sexual Politics of Meat by Carol J. Adams, Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge, and any books by Samantha Irby. This list is short, but I will continue to let y’all know when I listen to, watch, and read more. Until then, let’s continue to learn and grow.
[13:52] You can listen to more episodes of Understanding Kindness on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or by visiting feeds.transistor.fm/understanding-kindness. Transistor is spelled t-r-a-n-s-i-s-t-o-r. Subscribe so you never miss an episode!
[14:11] And now, some bonus recommendations! I loved this video by Candyss Love on YouTube titled “Solo Female Van Life + With Dog”. Candyss shares a lot about being on the road with a dog and how to care for them and allow them to have a great experience with you. Thanks for making this video, Candyss! Next is another Happiness Lab episode, this one on The Buddha. In this episode, Dr. Laurie Santos talks with Liz Angowski and Robert Wright about the lessons we can learn from The Buddha on impermanence and happiness. Take a listen! Lastly this week, “Class” is an episode of Witch, Please where Marcel and Hannah discuss class in the wizarding world, as well as in our society. Very well done! To learn more about oppression from the same places I did, I’ll link all the aforementioned recommendations in the episode notes..
[15:06] If you enjoyed this episode, help support the podcast! All this content is free and I’d love to make it my job one day, so if you’re financially able join our patreon or send a one-time or recurring donation through paypal! You can also share an episode with family or friends, and give UK a kind rating and review!
Check out UnderstandingKindness.com for all episodes, transcripts, and blog posts. And why not take a listen to my other podcast, Better When Awkward, co-hosted by my childhood best friend Jasmine!
Get in touch with me by emailing UnderstandingKindness@protonmail.com, or through social media. You can find all links in the episode notes.
For now, be kind, be compassionate, be understanding, and question everything. I’ll be here. Thank you for listening to this episode of Understanding Kindness. [End transcript]