Do you have Empathy for the Oppressor?
- Thread starter WellNoWonder
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I see oppression as a systematic thing that happens on all levels. I feel that the participates have to either choose to be in the system, or not accept the system (which the alternative can be death). I see a person refusing another a job on ethnic reasons as discrimination on the personal level, not oppression. The person being discriminated against can go and find a job somewhere else.
If a group of people discriminates against another (KKK for a cliched example) I see it as social discrimination. They're threatened by another group of people, but can move to where the discriminators don't exist.
I see discrimination on the institutional level along the lines of something like uneven wages across the board for a minoritized group. There are outliers that can escape the institutional discrimination because it isn't a required norm.
In my book, oppression comes in when all three of those are combined. Much like blacks were treated in America just after the civil war. We had Jim Crow laws (institutional), radical groups like the KKK (social), and widespread legal segregation (personal level).
Blacks were truly oppressed because all three were combined together to create a society that discriminated against blacks at all levels. They had to accept the system, or pretty much risk being killed (or leave the country).
Hope that clears up my view a little bit.
I do indeed...
as my signature says: "everyone is doing their best for who, how and where they are, and there is always a reason for behavior"
in other words, everyone's got a story, and victims who victimize, actually need help from the outside. Unfortunately, the outside has typically throughout history, only looked at the behavior, and not paid such close attention to the reasons behind it. Unfortunately, when those reasons begin to surface, traditionally, the outside world's response has usually been...'so what? just because that happened to him/her when they were small, doesnt give them the excuse to...'...
Empathy doesnt even mean that we have to be able to relate to something to give it value so that we can offer compassion with things that we can't understand.
Rather, empathy should be seen as what it actually is; it has no stopping and starting point from a basis of judgmental standpoint, but rather an infinate respect in all distance and direction.
as my signature says: "everyone is doing their best for who, how and where they are, and there is always a reason for behavior"
in other words, everyone's got a story, and victims who victimize, actually need help from the outside. Unfortunately, the outside has typically throughout history, only looked at the behavior, and not paid such close attention to the reasons behind it. Unfortunately, when those reasons begin to surface, traditionally, the outside world's response has usually been...'so what? just because that happened to him/her when they were small, doesnt give them the excuse to...'...
Empathy doesnt even mean that we have to be able to relate to something to give it value so that we can offer compassion with things that we can't understand.
Rather, empathy should be seen as what it actually is; it has no stopping and starting point from a basis of judgmental standpoint, but rather an infinate respect in all distance and direction.
It's how I have chosen to live my life as far as I can remember. Unfortunately, in the times when I have become so upset and angered by other's actions, it is then that I too fall into the pit of judgment. I quickly catch myself though, and my thinking can once again become freed and expanded on...
I think I show it in general conversations and interactions with others. I try and be a supportive person in others' lives, especially for my family and friends. I tend to just "know" anyways, what's really going on inside other people undernieth their shell so I have that unseen and untold information to reffer to while sorting my thoughts.
With my job, I am used to being around various negative moods, people and dynamics with the families. I just find that simple validation is often the first step and key, to building a bridge of trust with someone who is angry, afraid and stunted. At times, asking people certain questions which could help lead them to clarity about whatever negative issue I am able to see in them, is my way of spreading the gift of self discovery. I tend to think of it as planting the seeds of empathy and awareness in others, and I enjoy it when others do this with me also.
Generally I have found with most people, even the hard nosed ones who seem inclined to shun sensitivity as 'weak' and logic as 'truth and strength', that if I simply just accept them for it, and let them know it, I have given them a gift of validation that will be meaningful to them. On some level, they will begin to water it for themselves, from having been seen as acceptible, when likely throughout their lives, they have not. A form of positive affirmation and emotion which may be rejected inicially, but then when in private and safety, opened and examined.
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- Nov 12, 2008
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I will. Whether I like it or not, I will feel the emotions of someone else if I am near them, and it is strong enough. Very often, regardless of the reasons, I will feel bad for someone if they are going through a lot, and or are in some kind of emotional pain. If this is caused by them preforming some kind of evil act (yes, even murder), I will feel bad for them, and empathise, and sometime sympathize. The reasons and motives behind it will often control how strong this feeling is in me. Of course, after this I will logically process the events and come up with some kind of conclusion to it all, but this doesn't change the feelings I have much.