Oppression and privilege: causes, forms and effects

Transcript

RyanA Mexican American woman named Esmeralda waits at a grocery store deli counter. She's first in line. A White woman steps in front of her, and the server smiles and takes that woman's order. Esmeralda politely says she was there first. Don't worry, she's told, you're next. And then she waits until the other customer is fully served.

SoheeWhen she reports it to the manager, she's asked whether she might be too sensitive. And in the car, she can't decide whether to scream or cry.

RyanThat story comes from an open-access article by Monnica Williams in Perspectives on Psychological Science. She counts at least five microaggressions in that one trip to the store.

SoheeWelcome to EPPP Prep, the podcast. I'm Sohee.

RyanI'm Ryan. Today's knowledge statement asks about the causes, manifestations and effects of oppression. We'll present the research the way the sources do. And if this topic touches your own life, please take care of yourself while you listen.

SoheeLet's start with a definition that surprises people. In the OpenStax sociology textbook, a minority group, also called a subordinate group, is defined by a lack of power, not by numbers.

RyanThe textbook quotes sociologist Louis Wirth's definition: a group singled out for differential and unequal treatment because of physical or cultural characteristics, whose members regard themselves as objects of collective discrimination.

SoheeAnd it gives apartheid in South Africa as an example. The Black majority was exploited and oppressed by a White population that was far smaller in number. Being a numerical minority isn't the defining feature. Lacking power is.

RyanNow, how does oppression operate? C. P. Jones, writing in the American Journal of Public Health, proposed a framework of three levels of racism: institutionalized, personally mediated, and internalized.

SoheeAnd she illustrated it with an allegory about a gardener with two flower boxes, one with rich soil and one with poor soil, and red and pink flowers.

RyanA review by David Williams and colleagues in the Annual Review of Public Health describes racism as an organized social system, in which the dominant racial group, based on an ideology of inferiority, ranks people into groups called races, and uses its power to devalue, disempower, and differentially allocate valued resources and opportunities to groups defined as inferior.

SoheeThey describe three primary domains. Structural or institutional racism is embedded in laws, policies and practices of society and its institutions, giving advantages to some groups and disadvantaging others.

RyanTheir main example is racial residential segregation, which they say was created by federal policies and by government support of private practices like discriminatory zoning, mortgage discrimination and redlining.

SoheeCultural racism is the instilling of an ideology of inferiority in a society's values, language, imagery and symbols. They note it can yield inconspicuous forms of racism, such as implicit bias.

RyanAnd individual-level discrimination, which they describe as the most frequently studied domain in the health literature.

SoheeThen the other side of the coin: privilege. The sociology textbook describes privilege as the benefits people receive simply by being part of the dominant group. And it says most people have some level of privilege, whether related to health, ability, race or gender.

RyanThe key idea is that privilege is an institutional condition, not a personal one. It exists whether a person asks for it or not. Peggy McIntosh described White privilege as an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions she didn't ask for but still benefited from.

SoheeNow microaggressions. Monnica Williams's article quotes the classic definition from Sue and colleagues in 2007: brief, everyday exchanges that send denigrating messages to people of color because they belong to a racial minority group.

RyanThe term was coined by Chester Pierce. And other kinds have been documented too, including microaggressions aimed at lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people, and gender and religious microaggressions.

SoheeA science education article by Harrison and Tanner lays out three categories. Microassaults are conscious, deliberate, subtle or explicit biased attitudes or behaviors. They're the closest to outright prejudice.

RyanMicroinsults convey stereotypes, rudeness and insensitivity that demean a person's identity, and they're often committed unconsciously. Microinvalidations exclude, negate or nullify the thoughts, feelings or experiential realities of certain groups.

SoheePause and think. Two comments from that article's examples. One: is there any way you could dial back the accent a bit, it makes you sound unscientific. Two: I don't believe he was being sexist, you're blowing this out of proportion. Which categories?

RyanThe first is a microinsult. It conveys a stereotype about accents and ability. The second is a microinvalidation. It negates the person's own experience, the message being you're too sensitive.

SoheeAnd here's something Monnica Williams's article is open about: the concept has not been embraced by all scholars. There's ongoing debate, and the special issue she introduces discusses the critiques and refinements of the original taxonomy.

RyanNow the effects. A central framework here is the minority stress model. Ilan Meyer laid it out in a 2003 review, to explain the higher prevalence of mental disorders found among lesbian, gay and bisexual people. He proposed that stigma, prejudice and discrimination create a hostile and stressful social environment that causes mental health problems.

SoheeMeyer says minority stress has three features. It's unique, meaning it's added on top of the general stressors everyone faces. It's chronic, tied to stable social and cultural structures. And it's socially based, stemming from social processes and institutions, not from the individual.

RyanAnd he arranges the stress processes from distal to proximal. Distal stressors are objective events and conditions, like being fired or attacked because of prejudice. They don't depend on the person's perceptions.

SoheeProximal stressors are more subjective. Expectations of rejection and the vigilance that requires. Concealment, hiding one's identity for fear of harm. And internalized homophobia, internalizing society's negative attitudes.

RyanPause and think. A gay teacher is denied a promotion because of his sexual orientation. Separately, he never mentions his partner at work, and he's always scanning for signs that colleagues disapprove. Distal or proximal?

SoheeThe denied promotion is a distal stressor, an external prejudice event. Hiding his partner is concealment, and the constant scanning is expectation of rejection. Both proximal.

RyanThe racism review also discusses vigilance about the threat of discrimination. Several recent studies found it was associated with depressive symptoms, sleep difficulties and hypertension. Although they note these studies were all cross-sectional.

SoheeAnd the review reports that a 2015 meta-analysis of over 300 articles found the association between self-reported racial discrimination and mental health was stronger than for physical health.

RyanThey also describe stereotype threat: the anxieties and expectations activated in stigmatized groups when negative stereotypes about their group are made salient. Those anxieties can adversely affect academic performance and psychological functioning.

SoheeAnd they note emerging evidence that intersectional analyses, considering race, sex, gender and socioeconomic status together, find larger associations between discrimination and health than looking at one category alone.

RyanThere's also historical trauma. A review by Bombay, Matheson and Anisman, on the intergenerational effects of Canada's Indian Residential Schools, describes three characteristics of historically traumatic events, drawing on Evans-Campbell.

SoheeThe event was widespread in a group, with many members affected. It was perpetrated by outgroup members with purposeful and often destructive intent. And it generated high levels of collective distress.

RyanThey add that there seem to be generally agreed-upon characteristics of historical trauma responses. The events continue to undermine the well-being of contemporary group members, and responses to them interact with present-day stressors. They also note there's relatively little empirical research documenting the phenomenon.

SoheeBut the research doesn't only document harm. Meyer notes that as early as 1954, Allport suggested minority members respond to prejudice with coping and resilience. Minority status brings resources like group solidarity and cohesiveness that protect against minority stress.

RyanAnd he describes how lesbian, gay and bisexual people counteract minority stress by building alternative structures and values that enhance their group. And he notes that a lesbian, gay or bisexual identity may itself be a source of strength, when it brings affiliation, social support and coping.

SoheeHow does the exam test this? By asking you to classify: a level of racism, a type of microaggression, a distal versus proximal stressor. Or by asking what defines a minority group. Power, not numbers.

RyanRecap. A minority group is defined by lack of power. Jones: institutionalized, personally mediated and internalized racism. Williams: structural, cultural and individual.

SoheePrivilege is institutional, not personal. Microaggressions come as microassaults, microinsults and microinvalidations, and the concept is still debated.

RyanMinority stress is unique, chronic and socially based. Distal stressors are external events; proximal ones are vigilance, concealment and internalized stigma. Stereotype threat and historical trauma add to the picture.

SoheeAnd coping, group solidarity and cohesiveness can protect against the harm.

RyanThis was a heavy episode. If you need to, take a walk before your next study block. Understanding these forces is part of becoming the kind of psychologist people can trust with their whole story.

SoheeThank you for listening to EPPP Prep. Be gentle with yourself today.

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