Reflection Essay: What Is Anti-Oppression?

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Anti-Oppression

What is anti-oppression? I think that to understand anti-oppression, you first need to understand what oppression is. Oppression occurs when people discriminate against others due to circumstances that they cannot change. There are many forms of oppression: racism, sexism, bullying, oppression due to religious/ spiritual beliefs/ affiliation, heterosexism/ homosexism, ageism, classism, the caste system, and ableism. Oppression is seeing other people as “less than,” and treating them differently because of it. Oppression can occur anywhere. You may see oppression taking place through the law/government, in your workplace, or within your community or friend groups. It may even take place within yourself, negatively affecting the way you see yourself and those around you.
Oppression comes in many forms. One of the main components of oppression are stereotypes. Stereotypes can be troublesome because there are widely held beliefs about a group of people that may not always be true about some of the people that fit into that group. This can be detrimental because if you are a member of a group who is being stereotyped, you might feel the need to prove that you are not your stereotype, or you might feel the need to
However, the lessons we had where we learnt about the racism that people experienced in Canada through the Japanese Internment, the Chinese Head Tax, Africville, Nova Scotia, and the colonization/ assimilation of Canada’s Aboriginal people truly surprised me and caused me to think about this country in a new light. I never imagined that human beings could be so cruel to other human beings just because they look and act differently. Even while we were watching the movie Crash, I found that I was both shocked by how the characters were treating other people, and disgusted by some of the character’s

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