Oppression was never about superiority
Oppressors wrote the history books so we just wrote it that way
Oppression is an ideology that became institutionalized, that plays out interpersonally, and becomes internalized.
The Four I’s of Oppression created by the Women of Color Caucus of the National Organization of Women (NOW) in the 1980s
The ideology that justifies oppression, which became institutionalized, is not that some groups of people are superior to others. The ideology humans institutionalized is that the aliveness of life is dangerous, and therefore Aliveness must be dominated, controlled, and suppressed in order for us to be safe.
Each group that currently experiences oppression/ marginalization is more alive in some way that scares people who are not part of that group. More on this later…
Notice. When people are afraid of other people, they try to dominate, control, and suppress the mental, physical, emotional, or spiritual/energetic Aliveness of those people.
Physically - Banning border crossing and migration, slavery, chains, cages, Jim Crow laws.
Spiritually - Banning indigenous people from holding ceremony, black people from worshiping the Orishas, or any other religious group from practicing their religion.
Mentally - Banning books, banning people from teaching reading or writing to enslaved or formerly enslaved black folx, banning indigenous children from speaking their language in boarding schools.
Emotionally - “Don’t feel bad. It’s not your fault.” “Don’t cry. It will be ok.” “Don’t cry or I’ll give you something to cry about.” “If you don’t stop whining, I’ll take away your dessert tonight.”
We don’t just fear the Aliveness of humans. When we are scared of a force of nature that is out of our control, like death, we try to dominate, control, and suppress it. See Denial and Wrinkle Cream.
Notice. You have internalized this ideology. You try to dominate, control, and suppress your tiredness, your anger, your power. You drink coffee, say you are ‘fine” when you are actually angry, and you hide your power from yourself and others.
Donella Meadows, world-renowned innovator in the field of systems thinking, says the most powerful place to intervene in a system is at the level of a paradigm shift.
Oppression is systemic. We live inside systems of oppression.
We can fight institutionalized oppression, but this is not the most impactful place to intervene. By healing our internalized oppression, we create a paradigm shift. We change the ideology that runs our lives. Through our personal transformation, we fight oppression at the most impactful leverage point. Once we shift, we become an example to others. Just by living from the paradigm of Liberation, we show others that a paradigm shift is possible. Even better, we become living examples of what it looks like to make that paradigm shift. People can follow our lead. Our living example incites the Aliveness in others to divest from oppression as a strategy and join us in Liberation. Why? Because humans crave Aliveness above all else.
Notice. The people you most look up to and want to be like are very alive. Probably more alive than average. You might have noticed that they are smart, authentic, or bold. Yes. They let themselves be even more alive in those areas. That’s how you noticed.
This doesn’t mean that we don’t work toward institutional changes, or have conversations with people in our lives about improving our interpersonal interactions. We do that too. But to make the biggest impact we can, to make the most headway toward justice, we focus at least some of our attention on creating change at the most impactful leverage point, a paradigm shift.
By making this paradigm shift ourselves, we help society shift from oppression to liberation. This paradigm shift is not a “do as I say, not as I do” kinda thing. Liberation is not a practice for those committed to hiding from Aliveness in the safety of hypocrisy.