On the nature of oppression
Oppression happens in many ways.
We withhold access to clean water, food, education, health care, housing.
We pay people wages that keep them in poverty, never able to get above the threshold of survival.
We separate them from the majority of the population and take away rights.
We treat them as less than people.
We do not give them an education that will enable self-determinism and knowledge enough to become a strong resistance.
We perpetrate physical, emotional and spiritual violence on them
Oppression create violence in the oppressed.
The act of oppressing is a form of violence.
What humanity refuses to acknowledge is that the oppressor is the violent one. Those who are oppressed respond to oppression with violence, but they are not the instigators of violence.
Yet we accuse the oppressed for the violence that they enact, while their violence is a reaction to oppression.
Stop oppressing people, communities, races or nations, and violence is not needed as a reaction and response to oppression.
It is of course not this simple, as there are always rogue actors. But when we oppress and then accuse the oppressed for violence, we are the hypocrites.
Humanity, stop oppressing and exploiting others. This is, at least, one key to peace.
Photo Taken September 17th 2023
