Oppression, regardless of its form, is commonly seen as a natural interaction with others, so, in terms of psychology, the world without oppression cannot exist, even though it cannot be completely eradicated from everyday relations. However, there is as well an opposing belief that any human being is born with the potential to be oppressive, so it can be affected and is not necessarily realized when contacting with those somehow differing from the dominant group (Kite & Whitley, 2016, p. 527). In this, regardless of the common belief that racism and oppression are natural from the psychological perspective, developing effective strategies falling upon individual and organizational interventions can be valuable for reducing them, thus helping improve intergroup attitudes.
As it has been mentioned above, individual and organizational strategies and interventions are supposed to be the most effective ones when it comes to reducing oppression. The reason for pointing to these two types of strategies is the fact that racial oppression is caused by the combination of individual and collective factors so that they could have a positive impact on the two. Returning to the individual strategies, they may be potentially useful because individual experiences with racial oppression, as well as individual psychological patterns, commonly result in racism. Both derive from realizing one’s physical difference and failing to perceive it adequately (Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman, 2013, p. 239). For these reasons, in the case of helping people cope with these factors and individual patterns, oppression could be reduced.
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The most common individual strategy used is referred to as self-regulation model for the control of prejudice (Kite & Whitley, 2016, p. 531). This strategy is commonly applied to helping individuals develop cues that would help them control prejudice. The main value of this model is that it helps recognize the existence of the problem so that it could be properly coped with and, over time, self-regulation becomes automatic, which means that the severity of individual prejudice decreases. The same is true for the overall perception of outgroups, as they become treated with respect and equally regardless of their skin color. The latter canm be achieved because the activation of the stereotype is avoided, so the possibility of the prejudiced perception of another person is excluded.
In the case of collective prejudice, it is usually associated with intergroup dynamics as well as the interactions between ingroups and outgroups. For this reason, a proper way to address them, thus reducing oppression, is to apply the strategy based on the intergroup contact theory. The foundation of this approach is the belief that interactions between people change the way they perceive each other, so, over time, they learn to appreciate outgroups and treat them equally (Kite & Whitley, 2016, p. 537). In an organizational setting, this approach could be easily and effectively brought to life as teambuilding effort where everyone would have an opportunity to get to know their colleagues better due to having an equal status within the group involved in teambuilding as well as enjoy the support of managers. All of these factors are the key provisions of making the model work properly and reduce oppression to the maximum possible extent (Kite & Whitley, 2016, p. 537). This model could become a part of the diversity management strategies commonly used by most modern organizations with the aim of reducing oppression and promoting inclusion of the outgroups in a team (Hiranandani, 2012, p. 1). It is potentially beneficial for minimizing the criticality of collective factors and improving group dynamics.
The abovementioned interventions can be characterized as behavioral ones because they are developed with the aim of changing behaviors. Behavioral interventions may be valuable if applied properly. However, they are not the only type of strategies used to address the problem of racism-based oppression. Traditionally, preference was given to educational interventions based on racial attitudes and ideologies. Even though they may be effective due to helping obtain an understanding of the causes of racism, to have a practical value, they should be supplemented with the behavioral interventions. The latter are the most efficient ones because they actually lead to the eradication of the undesirable behavioral patterns and enhance group interactions. They are usually supplemented with other modern interventions common for the organizational setting, such as affirmative action – programs aimed at creating equal upward mobility opportunities for employees with different racial background (Kite & Whitley, 2016, p. 557) – and diversity initiative described earlier in the paper. These two can be valuable for making the individual dynamics more positive due to the critical impact of the group on an individual and personality.
All in all, oppression is a common individual and collective challenge that is associated with the psychological features of individuals affecting the ways they perceive physical differences and respond to it. In the case of groups, the risk factors may be more notable and critical because the group dynamics – the development of the interactions between ingroups and outgroups – may as well make the challenge more severe. Nevertheless, the combination of individual and organizational interventions – self-regulation model for the control of prevention and diversity management programs – can be used for reducing racism and oppression. Their main value is that they are developed as a combination of educational and behavioral interventions so that they not only help understand the roots of the problem but also teach to control it and, eventually, treat others equally or, at least, less negatively.
- Hiranandani, V. (2012). Diversity management in the Canadian workplace: Towards an antiracism approach. Urban Studies Research, 2012, 1-13.
- Kite, M. E., & Whitley, B. E. (2016). Psychology of prejudice and discrimination (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
- Zastrow, C. H., & Kirst-Ashman, K. K. (2013). Understanding human behavior and the social environment (9th ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.
