The Tyrannys Of Silence: The Tyrannies Of Oppression

Throughout history, there have been many types of oppression. Oppression occurs when someone is viewed as a lesser human in a way that makes the suppressor feel superior (Oppression, slide 5 and 6). Always, the person who is doing the suppressing is viewed as the terrible human being. However, humans are equally guilty when they sit back and do not do anything. Doing nothing is a way of encouraging the oppression that is occurring. The only way to change the cycle of oppression is speaking up and out against what is wrong. Thus, binary ideology can only be challenged when the individual silence is broken; the effect will be the increased visibility of others.

To stop oppression, binary thinking must be understood so it can be prevented. Binary

The tyrannies of silence can be described as, “cultural and individual silences that regulate social and individual visibility and undermine the likelihood of social change,” (The Tyrannies of Silence, slide 2). The idea that, if you are not the one doing the oppression then you are not responsible to act, is a very outdated idea. Bystanders are just as guilty for the negative acts that occur. Silence is a chain reaction; if one person does not do anything then the next person also feels not obligated to step in. Discrimination is one of the main topics where silence can be observed. As shown in the video by Tess Paras, ethnicity is often observed as a trait that is limiting (Paras, 0:43-1:10). As a society, we have set up ethnic stereotypes that limit people based on their ethnicity. In the music video by Tess Paras, she identifies common roles in shows such as, “over-sexed Asians, urban girl with flavor,” (Paras, 1:17-1:19). When people naturally follow these stereotypes, they think that they are doing nothing wrong. However, being silent about the “typical” roles associated with ethnicity creates the stigma that there is nothing wrong with it. Another major area of silence is gender stereotypes. When people silently obey to these stereotypes, it makes it more difficult to identify who is being hurt and who is benefiting from these silences (The Tyrannies of Silence, slide 5). In the TED talk, Tony

The other can be defined as, “one whose differences and experiences are judged to be “too alien” to be understood,” (Oppression, slide 8). People often consider those who are not like them to be inferior others. Thus, it is easy to discriminate against them if their gender identity, ethnicity, sexuality, or culture is different than one’s own. In the article “Are Emily and Greg more employable than Lakisha and Jamal,” an experiment is performed to see if employers are biased towards people with names that sound anything other than white (Bertrand and Mullainathan, page 428). They found that people with names that sounded more African American tended to get fewer interviews and were disregarded easier (Bertrand and Mullainathan, page 433). This experiment proved that, as a society, we tend to think people of color are less qualified to do the same job as people who are white. Thus, people who fall into this racial ethnicity are the “other”. Sexuality is often a concept that people cannot grasp past the typical heterosexual relationship. People who identify as any other sexuality on the spectrum are lesser people. In the article “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference”, Lorde says, “Lesbians and gaymen are expected to educate the heterosexual world,” (Lorde 78). There are many heterosexual humans that support and understand the whole spectrum of sexuality. But, instead, they remain silent which makes it