The Social Work Dictionary, ed. Robert L.

Barker defines oppression as: "The social

act of
placing severe restrictions on an individual, group or institution. Typically, a
government or
political organization that is in power places these restrictions formally or covertly
on oppressed
groups so that they may be exploited and less able to compete with other social
groups. The
oppressed individual or group is devalued, exploited and deprived of privileges by
the individual
or group which has more power." (Barker, 2003)
The Blackwell Dictionary of Sociology has an excellent definition of social
oppression: "Social
oppression is a concept that describes a relationship between groups or categories
of between
groups or categories of people in which a dominant group benefits from the
systematic abuse,
exploitation, and injustice directed toward a subordinate group. The relationship
between whites
and blacks in the United States and South Africa, between social classes in many
industrial
societies, between men and women in most societies, between Protestants and
Catholics in
Northern Ireland - all have elements of social oppression in that the organization of
social life
enables those who dominate to oppress others. Relationships between groups and
relationships
between groups and social categories, it should not be confused with the oppressive
behavior of
individuals. A white man may not himself actively participate in oppressive
behavior directed at
blacks or women, for example, but he nonetheless benefits from the general
oppression of blacks

and women simply because he is a white man. In this sense, all members of
dominant and
subordinate categories participate in social oppression regardless of their individual
attitudes or
behavior. Social oppression becomes institutionalized when its enforcement is so of
social life
that it is not easily identified as oppression and does not require conscious prejudice
or overt acts
of discrimination." One of the purposes of the exercise we'll do is to help use better
identify the
feelings that oppression produces in us and in our clients. (Johnson, 2000b)

Oppression: Charlton (1998: 8) states, oppression occurs when individuals are systematically
subjected to political, economic, cultural, or social degradation because they belong to a social
groupresults from structures of domination and subordination and, correspondingly, ideologies
of superiority and inferiority. (Charlton, 1998)

Oppression: Johnson (2000: 39) recognizes that for every social category that is privileged,
one or more other categories are oppressed in relation to it. The concept of oppression points to
social forces that tend to press upon people and hold them down, to hem them in and block their
pursuits of a good life. Just as privilege tends to open doors of opportunity, oppression tends to
slam them shut. (Johnson, 2000a)

Oppression (Deutsch 2006: 10): Oppression is the experience of repeated,

widespread, systemic
injustice. It need not be extreme and involve the legal system (as in slavery,
apartheid, or the
lack of a right to vote) nor violent (as in tyrannical societies). Harvey (1999) has
used the term

civilized oppression to characterize the everyday processes of oppression in

normal life.
Civilized oppression is embedded in unquestioned norms, habits, and symbols, in
the
assumptions underlying institutions and rules, and the collective consequences of
following those
rules. It refers to the vast and deep injustices some groups suffer as a consequence
of often
unconscious assumptions and reactions of well-meaning people in ordinary
interactions that are
supported by the media and cultural stereotypes as well as by the structural
features of
bureaucratic hierarchies and market mechanisms (Young, 1990, p. 41). We cannot
eliminate
this structural oppression by getting rid of the rulers or by making some new laws,
because
oppressions are systematically reproduced in the major economic, political, and
cultural
institutions. While specific privileged groups are the beneficiaries of the oppression
of other
groups, and thus have an interest in the continuation of the status quo, they do not
typically
understand themselves to be agents of oppression. (Deutsch, 2006)

Oppression: Oppression refers to relations of domination and exploitation economic, social

and psychologic - between individuals; between social groups and classes within
and beyond
societies; and, globally, between entire societies. Injustice refers to discriminatory,
dehumanizing, and development-inhibiting conditions of living (e.g., unemployment,
poverty,

homelessless, and lack of health care), imposed by oppressors upon dominated and
exploited
individuals, social groups, classes and peoples. These conditions will often cause
people to turn
to social services for help. Oppression seems motivated by an intent to exploit (i.e.,
benefit
disproportionately from the resources, capacities, and productivity of others) and it
results
In its traditional usage, oppression means the exercise of tyranny by a ruling group.
Yet,
oppression creates injustice in other circumstances as well. People are not always
oppressed by cruel tyrants with bad intentions. In many cases, a well-intentioned
liberal
society can place system-wide constraints on groups and limit their freedom.
Oppression
can be the result of a few peoples choices or policies that cause embedded
unquestioned
norms, habits, and symbols. These societal rules can become an restrictive
structure of
forces and barriers that immobilize and reduce a group or category of people.

No matter which definition you use, oppression is when people reduce the potential
for
other people to be fully human. In other words, oppression is when people make
other
people less human. This could mean treating them in a dehumanizing manner. But,
it could
also mean denying people language, education, and other opportunities that might
make
them become fully human in both mind and body.

People should be free to pursue life plans in their own way. Oppressive forces seek
to diminish those plans and thus those people as well.relatively few people are
advantaged by policy and practice, while the great majority is not. Sociologists
often refer to this imbalance as an issue of oppression.
When sociologists use the term oppression, they are referring to those attitudes,
behaviors, and pervasive and systematic social arrangements by which members of
one group are exploited and subordinated while members of another group are
granted privileges (Bohmer & Briggs, 1991, p. 155).
Oppression is not simply about one or more groups deprivation or exploitation; it is
a relationship. To speak of some peoples disadvantage is to imply others privilege.
The relationship, then, is one of a power imbalance in which one group has the
ability to secure and maintain its advantages relative whiteness. The power
imbalances of oppression also mean that one group enjoys unearned privileges or
undeserved enrichment and others unjust impoverishment and deprivation.
Undeserved enrichment is the unjust theft of labor or resources by one group
...from another group ... (Feagin,2001, p. 18). Unjust impoverishment is the
inequitable deprivation suffered by the oppressed. The dominance of the affluent,
whites, and men derives from their unjust enrichment over centuries of the
exploitation of the labor of workers, people of color, and women.
The notion of oppression does not necessarily mean that those who are among the
privileged are individually to blame for their advantage or that they themselves
oppressed the disadvantaged for their own gain any more than the exploited are
themselves to blame for their oppression. Rather, the point here is that the
accidents of birth accorded each of us our various positions, which means that the
advantages enjoyed by the privileged are not necessarily the result of their own
hard work. Likewise, the disadvantages of the oppressed are not necessarily their
own doing. Instead, it is important to understand the structure of power inequalities
as a fundamental feature of oppression and to explore how society may be
structured so as to privilege one group over the other, regardless of individual
efforts. That said, we are not arguing that such structures are written in stone,
forever inexorable and unchangeable. Rather, organized collective struggles in
systems of oppression may affect those relationships in significant ways.
According to Iris Marion Young, there are five faces or types of oppression:
violence,
exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, and cultural imperialism.

The definition of oppression is The systematic institutionalized mistreatment of

one group over another for whatever reason. People who experience oppression are
marginalized and denied access to basic constitutional guarantees as a result of
membership in a group based on any of a dozen identifications including color,
gender, age, sexual orientation, class, and other.

Two key words in the definition give a hint at the structure and purpose of
oppression. Systematic not an accident or happenstance, but planned, deliberate
and intentional, designed to keep everyone undesirable on the outside and the
entitled and privileged on the inside. Institutionalized it is in the very fabric and
foundation of every structure, process and program that is developed to support our
way of life.

Oppression is to oppressed people like water is to fish. Source unknown

This imagery gives us a way to image the presence of racism to people of color or
sexism to women, or heterosexism to homosexuals, or classism to people who are
poor. This quote can be applied to any group denied civil rights in a democratic
society designed to open doors for everyone regardless of any status. However, the
experience is very different from the reality of groups seeking full partnership
through the United States Constitution, which is governed and interrupted by
human beings. Much as the Bible is interrupted by human beings, regardless of
divine intention, we look through and hear through personal filters.