I am listening to a Memoir "Educated" by Tara Westover. In it she mentioned the side of the oppressor, when someone is looking for equality.
Now, as unreal as this may seem, the way she said it had me looking more at the oppressors than at those seeking equality.
The oppressors ARE the ones who have reduced the equality in the lives of those seeking it.
Whether it be disabilities, color, gender, sexual orientation, the oppressors ARE the ones who are withholding equality.
This changes the way I see the world.
And, who most often are the oppressors?
The majority.
Tara was raised in a very strict mormon fundamentalist family. Where her education was to be the oppressor.
I would have to say that I too was raised to oppress.
Raised that we were the right ones.
The subtle,or not so subtle, way I was raised to feel that white was better or that heterosexual was the only 'normal' and that christians were going to heaven etc, schooled me to be the oppressor.
Being raised this way, you can't see the oppressor, because it is you.
You only see those who are trying to make you wrong.
The reason we don't want equality, is more about making us wrong than the equality of others.
Each time we give up parts of our education in rightness, the less we know who we are.
It is humbling to realize I am the oppressor.
That some of my old beliefs held equality from others.
Here is the definition of Oppressor - "oppressor meaning: someone who treats people in an unfair and cruel way and prevents them from having opportunities and freedom."
I know I have touched on this before, but it was in but one way I was raised to oppress and I didn't see the broader education that I was raised in. How it has inadvertently made me a champion of inequality.
I didn't feel the depth of equality.
The steep hill some are made to climb, is due to how the majority has schooled its children. The legacy of this is handed down generation upon generation. And, in my case, the church is still going strong. There are huge families still passing on the blueprint of oppression.
I am not sure those who have been relegated to the lower level of equality can ever work hard enough to change this. What has to happen, which is highly unlikely, is for the majority to see their own wrongness.
To give up being right, the only church, the only race, the right sexual orientation and to adapt the inclusive mindset.
It goes against the whole teachings of the church.
What would happen if they were not the only ones going to heaven, or maybe if there was not a hell? What would happen if they were to include all manner of loving, and if humanity was one?
What would there be to protest IF the oppressors were not standing there blocking the way?
Get rid of the oppressors and peace happens.
I know many feel that they are blocking and defending something pure and whole. They believe they are the peace keepers, the ones who are protecting the land from ruin.
Instead they are actually the cause of discord.
Who would Martin Luther King have to march against if there were not Oppressors?
He had to march, for the oppressors blocked his equality.
I have not a clue how to change the oppressor's minds.
How many marches must there be?
Can enough victims come forth and break their silences?
How many laws have to be written in order for equality to win?
If you can't see the oppressor, you may be it.
If you are not marching, you may be the oppressor.
If you have no rights to fight for, you may be the oppressor.
Interesting to sit with.
And, I am sorry for my education, for it taught me to un-naturally oppress.
