Four I's of Oppression by TREC

The "Four I's of Oppression" by TREC explains four interconnected forms of oppression, so I wanted to talk about some examples of each.

    Ideological oppression is ingrained in a lot of people's minds and sometimes they don't realize it. I think the most common examples for this form of oppression are gender and racial stereotypes, but almost all of them end up relating back to ideological oppression. Even though our society has made a lot of progress, there is still a common belief that only (or mostly) men belong in leadership roles and women are better at caregiving or household tasks. The racial stereotypes are becoming more relevant again too, with people spreading ideas that certain races are more intelligent or hardworking than others. This is harmful because it's usually brushed off as free speech, but it encourages a dangerous mindset that can lead to harrassment and violence.

 

    Institutional oppression is widely noticed but harder to fight against, like schools in "nicer" (AKA mostly white, suburban) areas getting more funding and resources than schools in minority neighborhoods. Even though we can see the inequality, they aren't required to equally fund them, so these institutions take advantage of that. Our legal system is a common example, but this oppression is even seen in hospitals where people are treated and cared for differently just because of their skin color, gender identity, or culture. The President of the United States, who is supposed to lead our country and bring us together, threatened to cut funding to providers that offer gender-affirming care. This is how institutional oppession continues and spreads.

 

    Interpersonal oppression occurs between people, meaning harassment, bullying, microaggressions, etc. would fall under this category. When Inspiring Minds came to do our orientation, we did that exercise where we defined words and my group got "nice racism." This applies to interpersonal oppression because it essentially means that people think they have to be a bad person in other aspects to be racist, when that's not the case. Nice racism can be using microaggresions, downplaying white privilege, and ignoring blatant segregation or discrimination. A student being bullied at school by other kids because of their sexual orientation or gender identity is just one way we see interpersonal oppression in an educational setting.

 

    Internalized oppression happens when a person experiences discrimination or hate speech and they start to accept the negative beliefs of others as the truth. They might think they aren't attractive or smart enough because that's what they were told, so they end up having low self-esteem because they constantly remind themselves of those stereotypes and standards. This reminded me of when I learned about self-fulfilling prophecies, which is when how a person is treated directly affects their actual behaviors.

 

~Angel