Title: what is anti-oppression? | THE ANTI-OPPRESSION NETWORK
Headings: what is anti-oppression?
what is anti-oppression?
Personal Responsibility
Kyriarchy
Links:

Content: When studying the statistics of those receiving social assistance, or state aid, you would also notice that the vast majority of those in our communities living in this poverty are folks with disabilities and the elderly. Black people | Women | People of Colour | LGBT2IQ – Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, 2spirit, Intersex, Queer people | Seniors/Elders | Folks with disabilities | Low-income people | People of Indigenous ancestry | Children/Teenagers/Youth | Fat folks | Peoples with mental health struggles | New immigrants/Refugees | ELL – English Language Learners | Marginalized animal species | etc. ( Certainly there are more, and communities like LGBT2IQ are problematic where as oppression exists where the more privileged believe their needs are greater than others)
Personal Responsibility
Practicing anti-oppression work in real terms is not only confronting individual examples of bigotry, or confronting societal examples, it is also confronting ourselves and our own roles of power and oppression in our communities and the bigger picture. Though you may be a person that would never think to ever say anything racist/sexist/classist etc., by not realizing the power that you hold, and how your actions affect other people you will inevitably fall into sustaining and contributing to a larger system of oppression. Kyriarchy
The theory of kyriarchy is that all systems of oppression are interconnected and form a larger, overall system of domination. This means that individually, in some aspects of our lives, we may experience marginalization and lack of power, while in other aspects of our lives we have privilege and power. While you may be a person a part of an identifiable group who is historically marginalized (a person of colour, for example) you may also have a role and be a member of a group that dominates in power in society (while you are a person of colour, you may also be a cisgender man, an abled person, upper/middle class, straight etc.). The idea is that, while hierarchies are formed within systems of oppression, no single oppression holds more weight than another, because they cannot exist without each other. This also means that we all have a role in combating oppression and unequal power dynamics.