Power, Opression and Politics
Introduction
Of all the topics dealt with here at burstthebubble.org, these are by far the most complex. Interestingly, they are possibly also the most essential to understanding all social and environmental awareness, justice and activism as a whole. The ability to grasp the concepts of power, oppression, and politics, their systematics and how they interrelate with each other is crucial to being able to comprehend all the topics dealt with here on the site not as separate stand-alone issues but as issues that have common ground and that all relate to each other.
Definitions and Context
Power can be described as the capacity for control or force, or the ability to impose one’s will on others.
Oppression is defined as the negative outcome experience by people targeted by the cruel exercise of power in a society or social group.
Understanding the dynamic between power and oppression, that power is not distributed equally and that groups with more power are capable of oppressing those with less power is crucial to these ideas. There are many cases of oppression in human interactions, both with each other and with the surrounding environment.
Politics is defined as the way in which groups make decisions.
Political power is the power held by a group or society.
Hopefully it is now clear how in theory a social group possessing power can wield it in order to oppress others. One common form of social oppression is discrimination.
Discrimination
To discriminate socially is to make a distinction between people on the basis of class or category without regard to individual merit. In a society, the majority can often discriminate against others.
Types of discrimination include:
• Racial discrimination
• Religious discrimination
• Age discrimination
• Gender discrimination
• Sexual orientation discrimination
• Language discrimination
• Appearance discrimination
• Drug discrimination
• Class discrimination
• Ability discrimination
• Reverse discrimination
Persons subjected to a particular form of oppression tend to become known as minority groups.
Minority groups
A minority or subordinate group is a sociological group that does not
constitute a politically dominant plurality of the total population of
a given society. A sociological minority is not necessarily a numerical
minority — it may include any group that is disadvantaged with respect
to a dominant group in terms of social status, education, employment,
wealth and political power. To avoid confusion, some writers prefer the
terms "subordinate group" and "dominant group" rather
than "minority" and "majority".