Living Above Oppression Throughout History

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In a study, researchers found that African-American students who were identified by their race scored significantly lower than those African- American students who were not asked to identify their race (Elrich 1994). In another study, women taking a test of math ability were randomly divided into three groups. There was also a math test in which a group of women took. These women were split up in to three different names: women, citizens of the northeast, and private school students. The women who were listed under the name “private school students” scored better than any of the other women taking the test. In fact they also scored higher than the men who took the test as well (Elrich 1994). There was no difference in the information they were being tested on. The crucial difference in all cases was how the test-takers identified themselves. So, why does saying what race or gender you are make a difference in how you answer questions on a test? The answer is found within the expectations of society and a long account of discrimination. So I will report about the effects that discrimination and oppression have on those who’ve been targeted, and think about how we can live above them.
Before we define oppression we have to define it in its basic form which is discrimination. Discrimination has two definitions, one is recognition and understanding of the difference between one thing and another and the other is the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things. When we talk about discrimination as a social issue we usually refer to distinguishing between groups in terms of their race, gender, religion, class, etc. This probably date way back when our ancestors teamed up in groups for safety and mutual...

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....com. Retrieved December 9, 2013, from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/discrimation
Elrich, M. (1994). The stereotype within. Educational Leadership, 51, (8), 12-15.
Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed (30th anniversary ed.). New York: Continuum.
Holocust. (2013, August 12). Wikipedia. Retrieved December 9, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocust
Lipsky, S. (1987). Internalized oppression. Seattle, WA: Rational Island Publishers.
Oppression. (n.d.). Dictionary.com. Retrieved December 9, 2013, from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/oppresion
Small, T. A. (2011). WHAT THE HASHTAG?. Information, Communication & Society, 14(6), 872-895. doi:10.1080/1369118X.2011.554572
Urban Dictionary: internalized oppression. (n.d.). Urban Dictionary. Retrieved December 9, 2013, from http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=internalized%20oppression

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