It is difficult to understand oppression in our culture if we do not begin to discuss the privilege that dominant culture enjoys. It is important to look at how the day to day struggles and issues that minority or oppressed groups face are not known to dominant culture. Some tools to understand oppression are power relationships, internalized oppression, the role whites can play, and the use of language.
Paolo Freire and James Baldwin both discuss the relationship between the oppressed and oppressor. Both these writers make it very clear that “they [whites/dominant culture] do not really know that you exist” (Baldwin). This is because white people do not live the experience of oppression, they do not really understand how it functions on a large scale and everyday basis. The challenges to opportunity, employment, economic status and equality go under the radar for whites. In his letter, Baldwin shares these challenges in solidarity with his nephew, to acknowledge the injustice and suffering that they face, but also the beauty and strength in how their family members persevere.
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"Paolo Freire and James Baldwin about Oppressed and Oppressor".
In his book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Freire wrote “Without a sense of identity, there can be no real struggle.” This helps understand why Spike Lee advises his children to realize that they are Black first. In identity, underprivileged groups can understand and begin to fight against by acknowledging and studying the way the system works to shut them out or deny them of their rights. This is important because the majority of whites will not naturally fight for their rights, so they have to. Just like Baldwin writes: “many of them know better but find it hard to act on what they know” and “destroying hundreds of thousands of lives and do not even know it.”
Police profiling is an example of something that whites never have to face. In New York City, the Stop and Frisk law is applied to minorities (97% according to Civil Liberties Union), revealing how this policy is really aimed at targeting Black, Latino and Asian youth. This gives police the power to stop and pat them down whenever they want, even without probable cause. This is a violation of civil rights, but the majority of Americans say nothing, because the majority is white and do not have to deal with this injustice. This Freire makes clear, it is the “oppressed”, low-income and people of color that truly understand how oppression works because they receive the effects of it every day.
Racism is allowing the color of someone’s skin to determine how you interact with them, your attitude towards them, and your mindset about that individual or a group of people. Racism can also be defined as the systematic oppression of a group of people, intentionally or unintentionally, based on the color of their skin. Therefore, white / privileged people have a role to play in changing racist thought and action and attitudes. White people can help by examining their own views and not repeating ideas and concepts that are intentionally hurtful to a specific group of people (e.g. particular race, cultural group).
A prime example of an idea or aspect related to black culture is the use and misunderstandings surrounding the “N” word. The word “nigger” in our culture still brings up a tremendous amount of controversy. Regarding the “N” word, there are complicated and differing views on the power this word still holds. However, in his book The Big Sea, Langston Hughes, the great Harlem Renaissance poet and writer wrote “The word nigger, you see, sums up for us who are colored all the bitter years of insult and struggle in America.” In order to understand, we have to look at the meaning and its use. Hip hop culture uses this word in many ways to mean different things like “my friend” or “that guy” but it is really only acceptable for blacks to use the word in this sense. White rappers like Eminem and Atmosphere generally stay away from using this word in their lyrics. However, the history of this word is rooted in slavery, when slave masters and whites would call blacks “niggers” or “niggardly” meaning lazy and ignorant. Therefore the use of that word is hurtful. The use of this word in hip hop was meant to take its power away, use it for a different purpose and be used by blacks instead of whites to describe blacks.
Although these exercises are incredibly important to becoming more aware of privilege and inequality, there are many things that whites may never understand about “the Black experience.” It is okay to accept this as long as whites listen to blacks and minorities about their identity and experience with an open heart. I find that I am naïve to the Black experience and have heard other whites express that they just want blacks to “get over it” without really having listened to their experience. The reality is that those people refuse to accept that racism still exists and is embedded within our institutions such as the police force, the criminal justice system, schools and neighborhoods. Groups like the Bricolage put this information into action.
