I believe that all five faces of oppression described by Young still exist in America today. I’m only going to focus on the top three. Marginalization is a big one in America. Being socially excluded because of skin color, gender or the way you identify yourself such as gay, lesbian or any other member of the lgbtq community, is emotionally tramatizing. Young described marginalization as the most dangerous type of oppression. It can range from bullying in school to not being able to move to a certain neighbor or get a certain job. It’s a cycle of the same thing with different generations that just won’t stop.
Powerlessness is a form of oppression in work places. It is when workers have no say, no voice and no choice on how things are run. They don’t get to make decisions on their work conditions and lack any and all authority and dont have creative freedom to learn or build on their skills or knowledge. These are usually workers such as immigrants and minorities that have no choice but to work for that company. Many people are scared to speak up because they might get fired.
The last oppression I will be talking about is violence. I think this oppression is the most common. Many groups of people live in fear of leaving their houses because of the hate crime they could possibly face. African Americans, gays, lesbians, hispanics, Asians and even young women are targeted. These groups are looked at as inferior as though they don’t matter. These groups are tortured, beat, harrassed, and even killed not becuase of something they did but becuase of who they are. It is sad that we have to make laws to make discrimination agaisnt these groups illegal and the laws still don’t stop the hate.
