During this next section, I wanted to talk about the different types of oppression we see — because oppression occurs in many different forms.

Let’s begin by defining terms. Oppression:

• 1a : unjust or cruel exercise of authority or power
• b : something that oppresses; especially in unjust or excessive exercises of power
• 2: a sense of being weighed down in body or mind

One way to think of power, is to think of it as the privilege to oppress: the more privilege, the more access to resources on has, the more oppression they can cause.

Oppression takes two forms: physical, and emotional. Emotional oppression comes in the form of social stigmas, finances, bigotry, as well as laws, and other statutes, all of which oppress using ideology as opposed to physicality/force. Physical oppression is more obvious: though it’s important to note that violent oppression comes from both the state and the citizenry; that physical oppression is both carried out, and encouraged tacitly, by the state.

These two forms of oppression can also come passively, or actively. To try and illuminate this, I will give a few examples: Direct state violence, such as the assassinations of Black Panthers by the FBI or the U.S military/Kent State student shootings, is something I would place in active/physical oppression: whereas the media campaigns taken against resistance groups (operation COINTELPRO) in the 1960s would be categorized as active emotional because the operation was based in propaganda, and ideology. Then, the difference between active emotional oppression, and passive emotional oppression, is in the oppressor: in cases of active emotional oppression, a privileged person uses their privilege (power) to actively dismantle the social standing of a minority group; whereas in cases of passive emotional oppression, the oppressor is anyone who is following the ideas put forth by cases of active emotional oppression. Basically, the active emotional oppressor is creating the oppression, and passive oppressors spread out the oppressive ideology to other members of their social group. This brings us back to passive violent oppressors: passive violence is either mimetic of active physical oppression, or it is the playing-out of passive emotional oppression.

As I see it, any type of active oppression has to be sourced from a person of true privilege: someone who has stake in the oppression of minority groups, and someone who has the resources and connections necessary in order to do so. Passive oppression, on the other hand, tends to come from people who are themselves, to varying degrees, oppressed. People like impoverished whites, white small-business owners, the white working class — the people we most often associate with bigotry and oppression — are themselves being oppressed, by active oppressors, though to lesser degrees.

To call any single one of these forms of oppression “the worst,” would be to negate the suffering instilled by the other forms. In addition, we must realize that oppression and privilege are both trickle-down in their effects: the ruling class holds the bulk of privilege, a privilege which is founded upon and maintained by the active/passive emotional/physical oppression of minority groups; groups who are oppressed by the middle classes; the middle classes, in return, receive certain social/material privileges for maintaining the social order through oppression.

The privileges that whites end up receiving is, when it comes down to it, to have a bit more cash and better access to materials than the people they oppress: what seems to go unnoticed is all that whites lose when they choose comfort over morality. By agreeing to act as the oppressors, they not only hurt innocent minorities, and cause rifts in social relations; they actually become the oppressed: they become trapped in a world of hate painted to look like love and wisdom; paranoia is inherent. They are given certain privileges, socially and materially, that make them feel they are better than the group they are oppressing. This is where white superiority stems from. It’s kind of like two people in an ocean, both people are drowning but one person is pushing the other down so that the one person can stay above the water, for even a little bit longer.

I feel sad for the person being used, pushed down, drowned: they do not deserve that, no one deserves that; to know that you will die, and that your death is the price for someone else’s life.

It is horrifying.

But I also feel sad for the person who is going to drown anyways, but doesn’t realize it, and has unnecessarily lost their humanity in using another human life to try and preserve their own.

Tomorrow, I am going to relate this idea of the different forms of oppression to the different groups of oppressors, and the oppressed. This will hopefully start shedding light on just how large and many-sided the problem of privilege and oppression really is.