Special Populations Project
African Americans have long faced criticism over a pigmentation on their skin,
something no one can control. African Americans are the longest oppressed race with years of
extreme harsh realities. African American’s in today’s unbalanced sociopolitical government
creates holes within the legislative system where once upon a time they were considered only
three - fifths of a human. In the scholarly article written by Monique Morris she states the
following regarding the description of African American and their identity,
The texture of Black America's lived experiences is complex, and therefore reflects a
story that cannot be told by quantitative data alone. However, the numbers help us to
situate our discussions. They help us ground and focus our conversations such that we
can generate informed responses to the conditions of Black America.
Morris paints the reality for Black America and the struggle amongst America and the war on
their skin color. Conditioned to believe they were less than the white person. Die franchised
since birth, all people are conditioned to. All age group will benefit from this information
because the African American culture has overcame a lot of stereotypes by having the first black
President of the United States.
http://www.alternet.org/books/25-statistics-paint-picture-black-america
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/news/2012/03/13/11351/the-top-10-moststartling-facts-about-people-of-color-and-criminal-justice-in-the-united-states/
Running head: OPPRESSION OF COLOR
Oppression of Color
Annielu Soriano
Rasmussen College
Author Note
This paper is being submitted on June 03,2017, for Deanna Deaton HUS 3270. Working
with Special Population course.
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OPPRESSION OF COLOR
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Oppression Of Color
Some may describe oppression as a systematically discriminatory exercise of power.
While various minorities experience oppression based on somewhat arbitrarily set rules, I will be
discussing the experience of those identifying as African-American, and what that experience
may imply. This project seems that it’ll break down the simplicity of the word “racism” and
expose it for the true complexity that it is. It brings about a fairly new concept of
intersectionality, that implies that race, gender, sexuality act together to situate people within a
community.
Reference 1:
The article entitled “Negotiating the Intersection of Racial Oppression and Heteronormativity”
by Smith is intriguing because it deals with multiple dimensions of African-American identity
simultaneously. The study relies on psycho-discursive qualitative methodology, where the
participants who self-identify cisgender heterosexuals who are also black and LGBT allies. In
other words, Smith analyzes the ways in which the participants, as racial minorities, “negotiate
their own, as well as societal, narratives of prejudice toward sexual and gender variant
minorities” (2015). Their research concluded that their participants can be generalized as having
used three distinct narrative strategies when situating their experience in regards to
heteronormativity. When discussing the normalization of heterosexuality, the participants used
either differentiation, empathy or coherence (Smith 2015).
OPPRESSION OF COLOR
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Reference 2:
In their piece titled “Invisible Injuries and Silent Witnesses” Alleyne is concerned with
the fact that there is a lack of scholarly material discussing “the inner dynamics of race and
racism, its effects specifically on those who live with the stigma of historical oppression and
those who have to survive its perpetual stigmatization on a daily basis” (284). The author goes
on to note how prior to their research they saw many patient who essentially had some form of
workplace stress surrounding racial issues, what she goes on to develop as “workplace
oppression.” How much of these conflicts were perceived, as opposed to real, is a separate
inquiry. She explains that her research showed a trend indicating a silent form of discrimination,
a somewhat subtle racism. Alleyne’s main argument is that when black/white workplace
relationships are examined, it seems that black workers sometimes internalize feelings from
subtle incidents,that may or may not be intentional. As a result of this internalization, these same
people become predisposed to future incidents. It is no surprise that these “subsequent protective
stances adopted by black workers to defend against further hurt, eventually wore them down”
(Alleyne, 2005, p. 288). The article suggests that psychodynamic and analytic approaches would
be beneficial for black patients to make better sense of how historical oppression affects them in
a “transgenerational transmission of trauma” (Alleyne, 2005, p. 297).
Reference 3:
The third article I will be looking into looks at the visual appearances of white men, men of
color, white women and women of color within textbooks. This is important because
introductory textbooks “provide an overview of the subject matter thereby establishing
OPPRESSION OF COLOR
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disciplinary parameters” (Eigenberg, 2016). They lay down the foundation, in terms of
vocabulary, concepts, and the general topics of interest, on which students become professionals
in the field. The authors are interested in finding out if men of color are still overly represented
as criminals, while white men are overrepresented as professionals, in criminology related
textbooks. When looking at how women’s portrayal relates to their race, the authors were
concerned to see if white women still make up the majority of victims in photos, while women of
color are grossly underrepresented. The study looks at some 2,259 individuals depicted within
almost 2,000 distinct images. The images were assessed in terms of how individuals were
depicted, the placement of the image, and social composition of the images. The results generally
concluded that males and whites are still represented the most. Interestingly, white men
accounted for over half the people in all the images, and when looking at portrayals of criminals,
white men were dominant, and more than double men of color. When looking at images
depicting professionals, it is no surprise that the great majority were either white men or men of
color. When it comes to victims, white women were on the top, followed by men of color, white
men, and women of color with barely 10%. In fact, women of color seem to be so
underrepresented that they are about two times more likely to be depicted as “peripheral persons
which, by definition, played a minor role in visual images” (Eigenberg, 2016). If that category
was not utilized in the study, women of color’s representation within all the photos evaluated
drops below a mere 5%, which is definitely indicative of underrepresentation.
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Conclusion
All in all, it appears that in order to alleviate the pressures of long historical oppression
for African-Americans, we must be able to recognize the aspects of their social disposition that
may or may not further oppress them. For example, the experiences of women of color are rarely
discussed. In order to understand why, many argue for an intersectional analysis of how their
gender and race act together to perhaps, oppress them even more than if they were white women,
or men of color. This is crucial if providing counseling to someone identifying as AfricanAmerican, for their collective experience may seem to coincide, but one must step out of their
comfort zone and consider the individual differences that exists on a case by case basis. This is
perhaps where the answers lie, and true changes can actually be made.
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References
Alleyne, A. (2005). Invisible injuries and silent witnesses: The shadow of racial oppression in
workplace contexts. Psychodynamic Practice, 11(3), 283-299.
doi:10.1080/14753630500232222
Eigenberg, H.M. (2016). Marginalization and Invisibility of Women of Color: A Contebt
Analysis of Race and Gender Images in Introductory Criminal Justice and Criminology Texts.
Race and Justice, 6(3), 257-279. doi:10.1177/2153368715600223
Smith, L. C., & Shin, R. Q. (2015). Negotiating the Intersection of Racial Oppression and
Heteronormativity. Journal Of Homosexuality, 62(11), 1459-1484.
doi:10.1080/00918369.2015.1073029
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