My thoughts on the reading, “Oppression” by Marilyn Frye, I liked how she demonstrates a metaphor about oppression, for instance, she uses the birdcage as a metaphor saying why the big in the cage would not just fly around the wire anytime it wanted to go somewhere. but then you would inspect each wire you would see why a bird would have trouble going past the wire to anywhere. I thought this metaphor that she uses demonstrates oppression in that you can’t understand it by only looking at individual people, interactions, situations, or experiences. Frye mentions examples of oppression “smiling and being cheerful” if you do. you are complicit in the invisibility of your oppression. I didn’t think of that at first. This idea of oppression is a restriction, a set of barriers but not all restrictions and barriers are oppression. When Frye mentions, “Women are oppressed as women;…….. men are not oppressed as men” I didn’t think it that way but if there is no change in this structure then there is no way for women to escape this oppression.

As well My thoughts on the video were that it’s eye-opening that most of us tend to focus on what we don’t have and strive to have everything we want we forget to see what we already have and be grateful for that and realize that even if we don’t have everything we still are more privilege than most people around the world.

Great information this week but again the word oppression gets thrown around allot, i feel it is this months buzz word. I sincerely think that there is very few people that really experience oppression in the way they are portraying it to be. This is not taking anything away from anyone who actually lived through it but in the west I strongly doubt especially if you are a female you are oppressed. For everyone with there eyebrows raised please take a trip to Bangladesh with your issues and see how hard the woman there laugh at you . You may have had it rough , you may have been treated unequal but in certain third world countries oppression for females is their way of life. They didn’t just get skipped in line for a power broker position for being female , they are fortunate to step food outside without being murdered or stoned to death, burned, pick one. So when i see that word I tend to just smirk for a minute and think about the person presenting it and how wonderful that don’t know that they have it .

These readings were had a good information this week. Being oppressed is a normal thing for people of color. Whenever I walk into to a high brand store, I get followed either by the security or the workers. The minute I walked into the store which I am alone or with other people, I am automatically “suspicious”. But I am also privilege awhile, like when I go back to Ecuador, I see how other people live and don’t have certain things that I have. I also have the privilege to live my own life and not having the need to have a man support me. I have experience both being oppressed and being privilege but this is a normal thing for society.

I really liked the topic for this week. I felt that the readings and video were perfect to explain and show the forms that privilege and oppression come in. It also helped me further reflect on my own privilege and the different ways that I feel oppressed. Overall I’m grateful for this course as I feel that it helps me think more deeply not just about myself, but about a lot of these issues that need changing. I really loved how the video visually shows you the different levels of privilege and oppression that people experience. It also shows you how these people reflect on that, and how they view their peers in the experiment. I think it’s a good way to be conscious not just of yourself, but other people who may be more or less privileged or oppressed than you are. For a lot of them, it was a cathartic experience that they did not expect to have. It was interesting seeing their different opinions on their own privilege as well.

When it comes to privilege, I used to deny it and thought that I couldn’t have it because I didn’t have enough money or even the things I wanted. But I’ve experienced firsthand when it came to privilege. When I went to Mexico to see my family, they had something I didn’t have, and I had things they didn’t have. I had clothes, a house, food, and all this technology, and im allowed to do whatever I wanted. in comparison, they aren’t able to afford things they want or stuff that I even have. It made me think about what I have and that I’ve been somewhat privileged since I was a kid. But I felt like I could relate more to Marilyn Frye’s reading. For example, she stated that ” it’s often a requirement upon oppressed people that we smile and be cheerful. if we comply, we signal our docility and our acquiescence in our situation.” I come from a Mexican household, and there are certain things im not allowed to do, but my brother is. since he’s a man, they think he can take care of himself, and I won’t be able to if I hang out with some friends. My parent doesn’t let me go unless I have him around. My parent needs to see that it’s a new generation and women are capable of taking care of themselves. Some should be able to have the right to have fun and go with a man being around.

Reading “Oppression” by Marilyn Frye really opened my eyes and made me realize that I have privilege. Privilege is something that so many people around the world unfortunately don’t have or don’t experience it. I am now aware that I automatically have privilege because of what I look like and my skin color. I have close friends who don’t experience the same privilege that I do and it saddens me when I think about it. When I’m in a situation that isn’t going to well, I have to think to myself “there are people in this world who have it worse than you and can’t do certain things that you can”. Every time that I am with my African American friends and we walk into a convenience store of some kind, I notice the employees body language immediately change and they begin watching intensively. The employees automatically think that my friends will steal from their store just because of the color of their skin and not based on the kind of person they are. Being friends with black people made me realize how hard their lives are compared to mine yet we are all human so it doesn’t make sense to me as to why based on someone’s skin color, they are portrayed as something so awful. I am so grateful for the privilege I have but sometimes I feel guilty that I have it and some of my close friends that I love dearest and I know wouldn’t even hurt a fly, have to deal with oppression and discrimination. It breaks my heart that we all can’t just be human and comfortably be in our different skin tones.

My thoughts on white Privilege and oppression, 

I have been in situations where I had to stand up for my friends and family members who are darker than me. How can we just accuse someone of stealing when they just walked into a store? That is a privilege I have. I can simply walk into a store and not get followed around because of the color of my skin. I am aware of the privilege I have of being able to afford rent in New York City. To simply have a roof over my head. I am aware and grateful. I will continue to spread awareness and ask to hear everyone else’s experiences and how I can help them. No one should ever feel invisible. We must acknowledge the word oppression in every aspect of life because it exists. Just because you do not experience it does not mean it does not.  

In the article, “Oppression,” Marilyn Frye talks about a number of interlocking systems of oppression. Interrelated forces that press down on people who belong to one group (such as women or people of color) and effect their subordination to another group (such as men or white people). I believe when we say that women are oppressed as women, but men are not oppressed as men, we are not saying that men don’t suffer or don’t have feelings. I think its referring to a systematic oppression of certain groups that people are born into.

Peggy McIntosh in her article, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” she recognizes that hierarchies and systems of oppression interlock and intersect must also be a phenomenon of white privilege that was similarly denied and protected. Peggy depicts on people of color are made to lack confidence and feel uncomfortable and alienated to how white people are made confident and comfortable. Reading both articles helped me realize I can’t unpack my own knapsack without helping someone else unpack theirs. The advantages of a social group to which we as people personally belong to at the expense of the people in one or more other groups. Its also sad that we let ourselves succumb to the system of oppression without realizing the power that we have as human beings.

In a certain way I feel both of the readings had connections with oppression. Although, one was about white privilege, however,white privilege is oppressive to minorities so that makes sense. What stood out to me the most is McIntosh not consciously realizing her white privilege until she sat down and wrote it out. As a minority I use to be confused when other minority people took offense to someone saying they don’t see color in a person. I would feel like it was harmless and they were essentially saying they view everyone equally. Now I kind of feel like people take offense because to say you don’t see color is to say you don’t recognize where and how you are privileged in the areas I am not. Taking away from the fact I have to try double as hard to prove I deserve it and only succeed half of the way or exhaust myself proving I am worthy of an opportunity you simply showed up and qualified for. I also found it interesting how Frye mentions the differences between unfortunate events and actually being oppressed kind of like some people want to be viewed as victims of oppression but are actually a part of an oppressive group themselves!!

One reaction that I can’t help but point out is that I did find both of these readings very extreme and rigid. Going back to our first reading, Bell Hooks talks about her definition of Feminism not being about tit for that, women getting what men have. That it’s about dismantling sexism. Example: I know that there are all different kinds of men and some of them are oppressed as men within the male system. So, I felt turned off by the extreme thinking in this week’s readings. It struck me as unrealistic and un-imaginative.Why does that matter? Because coming at problems with an extreme outlook does not leave room for variation and nuance. In order to come up with the kind of solution a colossal problem like this, we need to be extremely creative. We need to look at the macro and the micro and all that lies between.

All that said, I did get a lot from these readings, they were challenging me and really getting me to think and care. I bounced back and forth in my mind while reading them. It is clear that there are people who are living at all scales of disadvantage and the systems of oppression are kept invisible. In the reading by Peggy McIntosh she states, “Whites are taught to think of their lives at morally neutral, normative, and average.” That is such a simple and clear example of how white people are kept protected within this invisible system that cages others.