Let's examine all our attitudes and face our own oppressive tendencies

We begin by looking at the circumstances certain groups of people find our/themselves in in the world today. We recognize that life on this planet isn't fair, and this disturbs us enough that we ponder why that is and (hopefully) what we can do about it. This much is good.

Then we spend some time thinking, read some books, take some classes, deconstruct some dominant paradigms. . . and begin to understand how deeply the roots of injustice lie. We learn big words like xenophobia, marginalization, institutionalized racism, capitalist patriarchy--and we learn of the strength and power that the concepts behind these words wield. This much is also good.

From here, we get angry at the capitalist patriarchy. We bemoan the socialization of oppression. We talk about hierarchies of oppression and participate in sick "I'm more oppressed than you are" contests--which lead to even sicker games of judging the validity and value of people's thoughts, feelings, and experiences based on their status on some theoretical continuum of oppression.

But how far does this angry, academic theorizing take us?

I mean, really. It's easy to blame all sorts of shit on the capitalist patriarchy, but what does that mean? I don't contest the fact that we live in a fucked-up hierarchical society, or that power dynamics between groups play an important part in our lives. . . but, there it is. We've acknowledged that. Let's move on. Let's quit blaming institutions and -isms. Let's quit hiding behind the labels we're throwing at one another. It's easy to call someone racist--as if any white person in this society is not. And it's easy to write someone off as sexist, or homophobic, classist, ableist, whatever. But what does this name-calling accomplish? Can't we do better?

All we're really doing is pinning the blame and responsibility for the evils of the world on something bigger than ourselves. It's huge and intangible, and in a way, that makes us a bit more comfortable. Placing evil on external concepts situates oppressed groups as helpless victims. It makes it oh-so-easy to exonerate ourselves from the guilt of our own oppressive attitudes and behaviors.

Further, we make it easy to draw good guy/bad guy dichotomies. I see it (and, yes, participate my self) all the time. We're constantly making character judgments of each other based on inadequate information. We so quickly read motivations and entire worldviews into isolated comments and actions--you know, somebody makes one comment and immediately gets branded as racist, sexist, whatever. . . no questions asked, little regard for context or intent.

Are we really so weak that we have to hide behind generalized accusations of others? Can't we be better than that? If only we could turn some of our criticisms inward--and I'm not talking about internalizing the various oppressions we are subject to. I mean really recognizing that no matter how oppressed any one of us may be, there are still aspects of our own lives which are oppressive to somebody else. It's so damned easy to blame "the Man." What's harder is to acknowledge the complexities of oppression that perpetuate him--because if we're honest, we implicate our selves. And that's not so comfortable. It forces us to confront our own humanity. . . and in turn, the humanity of our oppressors. We're no longer solely the innocent oppressed, and they're no longer solely the hate-filled oppressors.

We need to start doing in our own lives what we wish our oppressors would do in theirs. Let's examine our attitudes, turn the searchlights inward, face our own oppressive tendencies and start trying to fix them, however painful that process may be.

Sometimes I think about the progress we could make toward eliminating injustice if we were as quick to recognize the oppressive aspects of our selves as we are to point them out in others. Can you imagine what could happen if we held our selves to the same standards we use to judge our oppressors? I dream a world. . .

(P.S. I don't do things like write to newspapers. But I think a lot, so for once I thought I'd share. If you have any thoughts in response, I'd like to hear them. Really. My number's in the book.)

Noel Tieszen is a college senior.