Oppression in America

ABOUT OPPRESSION

It is human nature for us to want to be better than someone else; maybe that's why PRIDE was considered the chief of the seven deadly sins in the medieval Christian church.  But when we use what POWER we have, legally or socially or politically, to push around another group or person or prevent them from exercising their human rights, then that's oppression.

Oppression is a big theme in American literature from its inception until now. So it's necessary that you notice it and try to understand its impact. In our American history we have had lots of oppression: English/American colonists over the Native Americans (the colonists had JUST escaped the oppression of the English church/government over them); the Puritan church over anyone who disagreed with them (if a woman taught her faith or a man disagreed with the Puritan establishment, she or he could be hanged as a witch); one political group over another, depending on who's in power; white over African American; everybody over the Irish in New York; everybody over the Jews, except in New York; men over women; currently Jews over Palestinians, ISIS over whoever they don't like, etc., etc.

Oppression is about one person/group with POWER bullying one without or with less power. One that we even fought a war over is white over African American. By, the way, slavery ended in 1863, but oppression continued for another 100 years because of Jim Crow laws, which prevented African Americans from attending white schools and receiving appropriate pay for jobs; worst was that, because of the rigid social structure prior to 1950, whites were rarely punished for crimes against blacks. SO don't say that Oprah grew up in slavery (seriously, many of my students have said that!!). Oprah grew up with me--same era, same town. (Well, I'm older, so I didn't really know her.) Morgan Freeman is older than either of us. He grew up in a Delta town, but he wasn't a share cropper, and he sure as heck wasn't a slave!!

However, my dad WAS a share cropper, and he was white. The thing is that, without a knowledge of history, we get some weird ideas about the oppressors. Dad, like many other people (white, black, Hispanic, Asian) then and now, was a victim of class oppression--the rich over the poor; though he will roll over in his grave if any of y'all tell him I used the word VICTIM to describe him. He overcame the oppression, not to become rich or even barely middle class, but to achieve self-esteem. His children have been successful because he insisted that we take education seriously and realize that it was our way into the American Dream.

Even more prevalent "victims" of oppression were women. And my dad, who had precious little power in the rest of the world, told my mother how to vote--so she really did not have political power at all. She thought that he was a good husband even though he thought that women were inferior to men, well until one of his daughters became a doctor and all of us became more educated than he--ha. (By the way, we all worked our way through college, not because we were oppressed, but because we were determined to get a degree or two). But, legally, women were not allowed to vote until 1929, not allowed on juries until the early 1900s, and in many areas prohibited (legally or not) from making equal money for equal jobs, etc. 

Anyway, you get the idea I hope. In our literature, we see LOTS of oppression, some through unfair laws, some through ethnic prejudice, some through sheer bullying. We have one writer of a non-fiction book about the situation of African Americans at the turn of the 20th century. One of the fictional characters was surrounded by wealth and position, but virtually imprisoned because of her postpartum depression. Which one? One lady dealt with prejudice against her “Spanish” background, but she seemed to manage her life. And others who were seemingly living in an environment of possible oppression fought back by whatever means available and prevailed. Who were they?