While reading “The Five Faces of Oppression,” oppression is described to be a structural phenomenon that impacts a group. Today, the concept of a social group still exists in the United States. But what is a social group? A social group is a “collective of person differentiation from at least one other group by cultural form, practice, or way of life” (Young 40). It has more to do with identity and a sense of belonging to a group that makes it a social group. One example in the passage is how Black Americans are a social group that is not primarily for their skin color, but rather their classification of oneself (Young 41). This is relevant because we have social groups here at Xavier University of Louisiana. One organization, XULAVA, is Xavier Vietnamese Association is a social group. They have many members of different colored skin and ethnicity, but what defines them is their love for Vietnamese culture.
One of the five faces of oppression that exist today in the United States is violence. Many people suffer from systematic violence which is when members of a group are targeted for a random reason with intent to humiliate or destroy the person (Young 56). Since the start of the pandemic, Asian hate crime has risen significantly. I have seen endless videos of Asians being targeted for no reason. It hurt to watch because, in all the videos, the victims were either old or defenseless. During the peak of the Asian hate crimes, I felt like I had a target on my back being I was born Asian. It was scary to outside because I did not want to be a victim.
