Equality and Illusions: Reflections on Human Oppression Work at the University of Minnesota

by
Juan C. Moreno
Donna M. Hauer
Linda M. Wolford

The Diversity Institute
University of Minnesota

“I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies; education and culture for their minds; and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits.” --M. L. King Jr.

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” --Nelson Mandela

“We do not see things as they are. We see things as we are.” --The Talmud

“The obscure we see eventually, the completely apparent takes longer.” --Edward R. Murrow

“When you are in the middle of hell, keep going.” --Winston Churchill

“Make the injustice visible.” --Mohandas K. Gandhi

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” --M. L. King Jr.

“Freedom is a good held in common with others and, while everyone is not benefiting from it, those who believe they are free will not be so.” --Miguel de Unamuno

“The middle class and working poor are told that what's happening to them is the consequence of Adam Smith’s ‘Invisible Hand.’ This is a lie. What’s happening to them is the direct consequence of corporate activism, intellectual propaganda, the rise of a religious orthodoxy that in its hunger for government subsidies has made an idol of power, and a string of political decisions favoring the powerful and the privileged who bought the political system right out from under us.” -- Bill Moyers, June 3, 2004

If it were possible to summarize in one sentence what we have learned after many years of human oppression work at the University of Minnesota, that sentence would read: “Equality in human relationships is largely a utopian illusion.”

After many years of diversity work; thousands of training sessions on human oppression, diversity, and multiculturalism; and hundreds of intense interactions with students and interns whose wisdom has forced us to question numerous assumptions about the nature of reality; we have come to the sobering realization that the human species has a long way yet to go, in its evolutionary development, in order to make the Jeffersonian ideal of equality a reality in our everyday lives. In fact, we may be witnessing the birth of a deeper recognition that it is inequality and not equality that is “self-evident” in most human relationships. Additionally, we may have to reexamine even what we mean by equality (equality of outcome or equality of opportunity) as we collectively wrestle in our attempt to live up to “the true meaning of our national creed.”

Unfortunately, we humans continue, after thousands of years of so-called civilization, to interact with each other in ways that are, for the most part, Darwinian (survival of the fittest) in nature. There is no question that during this time we have made dramatic progress in the areas of science and technology. In the area of human relations, however, we are still swinging from the trees. We may, in fact, not even possess a sufficient knowledge base of life experiences, from which to draw, about what it means to establish relationships with one another based on this elusive concept of “equality.” It is not surprising then, that we continue to preserve familiar systems of oppression that sustain an “up” and “down” reality in most of our interactions with other human beings on planet earth. As a consequence, we are routinely prevented from being able to embrace all of humanity--our own as well as others.

The Diversity Institute at the University of Minnesota was established in the early part of the 1990’s in order to meet an emerging developmental need in the area of diversity programming for a “next-stage” center and think-tank devoted to the study and exploration of this critical area within American higher education. The primary focus and impetus for this new venture was to be the generation and dissemination of knowledge on the interconnectedness of all areas of human oppression and privilege as well as the development of innovative strategies to build authentic community while embracing human differences. The working mission of the Institute has been, since its inception, “To actively promote the multicultural development of students, staff, and faculty at the University of Minnesota.”

The Institute has fulfilled this mission by designing and implementing innovative strategies that have sought to empower, challenge, inspire, liberate, and ultimately transform individuals and their organizations from the fears and prejudices that hinder the achievement of their fullest potential. The Institute has also served as a center for community transformation where issues of human difference are acknowledged, appreciated, and celebrated. The Institute's many services include training, education, workshops, consultations, advocacy, internships, research, and small grants.

In all of these endeavors, the Institute has attempted to reside at the intersections of all areas of human oppression, exclusion, and marginalization. Intersections are, by definition, dangerous yet exciting places to live and work and it usually takes courage and serenity to survive in their midst. Living in this “in-betweeness” has permitted us to begin to understand as well as appreciate more fully the interconnectedness of the multiple ways in which we categorize, classify, label, judge, pathologize, and ultimately dehumanize one another.

In this regard, perhaps our most elementary discovery has been the realization that among the many manifestations of human oppression are the well-known “isms” whose place of residence is at the forefront of many human contradictions and conflicts, namely: racism, sexism, ageism, ableism, heterosexism, classism, nativism, and so on. This, however, is clearly only a very partial list. There are many other, lesser known relatives, more non-traditional ways through which wecontinually inflict enormous subtle and not-so-subtle physical, psychological, and spiritual pain upon one another. Among them, one finds references to such elements as physical beauty, marital status, perceived intelligence, body weight, levels of formal education, illusions of expertness, types of clothing one wears, grooming, speaking accents, caste, tribe, culture, and many others.

All of these dynamics increase exponentially the complexity of the work around issues of human oppression, marginalization, and exclusion. Much more investigation and research needs to be done in this field in order to better understand the challenges to human relationships that lie ahead for our nation and the world, even as we welcome a new millennium. What follows is a partial list of additional insights that we have distilled over the years as a result of wrestling, within the context of our work, with these significant issues of our times:

1. To understand the nature of oppression, it is fundamentally important to explore it from the viewpoint of the “self” as well as the “other.” It is our experience that only after careful exploration and healing of our own biology, history, and culture--the central elements of all human difference--that we are better able to understand and build alliances with “others.” Human oppression resides inside the self (internalized) as much as outside the self (in our relationships with others). As a consequence, it is in the discovery, acceptance, and celebration of our own internal diversity, where we may be able to find the right conditions that elevate us from our animalistic heritage and permit us to encounter others--outside of ourselves--with some measure of oneness, humility, and compassion.
2. Human oppression is present within all human groups. It is as much a part of the relationship between the majority and the minority populations in a given nation-state as it is in the relationships of minorities with each other. Oppression is also present in the relationships of majority and minority groups within themselves. There is as much intergroup oppression as there is intragroup oppression. In addition, emancipating ourselves from the vestiges of internalized oppression as well as internalized superiority often requires a lifelong developmental process of decolonizing and liberating our own minds.
3. Perhaps the most difficult challenges faced by authentic transformative processes (as they pertain to issues of oppression) reside in being able to develop the capacity to transcend the sense of guilt, blame, and shame of those who perceive themselves ONLY as villains (perpetrators) and the sense of innocence, blamelessness, and incorruption of those who perceive themselves ONLY as victims (targets). In the first instance, forgiveness and reconciliation may hold the key. In the second instance, humility and redemption may hold the key.
4. Sometimes entire societies, out of a sense of collective guilt, will assign innocence to a target group of the oppressed. At other times, individuals may appropriate a sense of innocence and blamelessness for themselves. The assignment or the appropriation of innocence and blamelessness is as damaging to authentic human development as is the assignment or appropriation of prejudice, particularly when it becomes internalized.Paradoxically, the oppressed are as capable of oppressing others, with whom they have a power differential, as are the oppressors.
5. In the area of human oppression we are ALL involved both as victims (targets) as well as villains (perpetrators). It may be (sadly) a fact of human nature that “ups” want to remain “ups” while “downs” want to become “ups.” In a paradoxical manner, victimization may have rewards for both the villain as well as the victim.
6. Humans, by their very nature, live within the paradox, contradiction, and tension of their uniqueness and differences as well as their alikeness and universality. This dynamic also applies to our propensity for grouping and the subsequent creation of cultures. Diversity and community, therefore, are two sides of the same paradox. In fact, diversity’s most important shadow is community and community’s most important shadow is diversity. We want to remain unique but we cannot escape our social imperative. Diversity pushed to its limits is divisive; community pushed to its limits blurs individuality. How groups handle this eternal tension (apart from vs. a part of) develops into a major cultural difference among them. All of these dynamics create a great deal of dissonance in human diversity work.
7. Potentially, there are as many human differences as there are persons inhabiting planet earth, more than six billion at the present time. Given the biological, historical, and cultural foundations of our uniqueness it can be determined, with some degree of certainty, that the possible manifestations of human differences are, in fact, infinite.
8. Language and labeling are powerful sources of human oppression. Whoever has the power to label also has the power to define. Language has always been used by the oppressors in the preservation of the status quo. Wordsmiths of the ruling classes have frequently managed to create meanness, myth, magic, meaning, and metaphor--through the use of language--in order to keep the “downs” in their place. There is some indication that communication appeared about 200,000 years ago in our evolutionary journey as a species, as a genetic contribution to our survival objective. Communication is a wonderful gift to the human family. Without communication we would have neither community (relationship) nor culture. Yet, in its shadow dimensions, communication in all of its forms and complexities can also be used to dehumanize and exclude others. Human opression begins with communication--words as well as gestures (verbal [10%] and non-verbal [90%]). Some the world’s greatest atrocities, such as Auschwitz, began with words. Simultaneously, however, communication (authentic dia-logos) is our greatest hope--perhaps our only hope--for bringing about some measure of healing and reconciliation to our relationships and communities.
9. Power and oppression are interrelated. Power combined with prejudice leads to human oppression. Power, however, is not a monolith. Power comes in many different forms, such as: personal, professional (expert), educational, physical, emotional, institutional, systemic, positional, authoritarian, dictatorial, social, political, economic, military, religious, technological, informational, subversive (undermining), etc. Within an organizational context, real as well as perceived power can manifest itself in a variety of ways such as: length of service, perceived or actual value to the organization, physical size, strength of personality, or being a member of a group disproportionately represented within the organization. The most obvious power difference in an organization is determined by the position one holds within the organizational structure. Organizational power plays a distinctive role in the maintenance of institutionalized oppression. Any form of power can be used to dehumanize others. Nearly everyone can tolerate a little diversity but giving people some power and seeing what they do with it will determine the true test of one’s humanity.
10. It is possible for us not to carry the memory of our experience with one form of oppression in our lives into building alliances with others suffering from another kind of oppression in their lives. In fact, it is very possible, under the right circumstances, for the oppressed to become the oppressor.
11. Human oppression manifests itself in a continuum from name calling, harmful stereotypes, derogatory jokes, and pity; to hate speech and hate crimes; to ethnic and social cleansing, torture, lynchings, and genocide.
12. Humans are comparing and judging creatures par excellence. We establish pecking orders over a wide range of human experiences and human differences. A new development in human oppression work, which we have coined the “ism-ism,” is the tendency in some quarters to assign value judgments to the various “isms.” The profound irony of this new development is that we are now attempting to assign value to degrees of pain and suffering caused by issues of oppression. For example, much discussion now takes place about which is worse, racism or sexism. Other “isms” such as heterosexism or anti-semitism are also routinely denied or devalued as illegitimate. Pecking orders of oppressions are frequently established on the basis of visibility of the source of the oppression (for example skin color or sex), the assumption of having a choice on the matter (as in sexual orientation), or the ability to hide it (as in social “passing” by virtue of a hidden disability). The establishment of hierarchies of oppressions is, fundamentally, a contradiction in terms.
13. Most humans have not experienced interactions based on this elusive concept of equality. As a consequence, we lack a reservoir of experiences to help us establish relationships with one another that are not Darwinian in nature--about domination (“up-ness”) and subordination (“down-ness”).
14. Our real or perceived place on the human food chain determines our personal as well as collective worldview. The fortunate are much more likely to experience the world as being just and fair. The unfortunate are much more likely to experience the world as being unjust and unfair. This may also have an influence on optimism/pessimism scales as it pertains to entire societies.
15. We generally oppress one another around the areas of our biology, history, and culture--the very areas that are central to our definition of self/identity in a given society. In addition, the aspects of our humanity that are most threatened in a given cultural/societal context also become the aspects that eventually form the very essence of our identity in that culture/society. For example, a person may define herself as an Asian bisexual in a given cultural context and as a bisexual Asian in another.
16. All societies assign both unearned privilege (advantage) as well as unearned prejudice (disadvantage) to various aspects of our biology, our history, and our culture. We are generally more aware of the dynamics of prejudice in our lives than we are of the dynamics of privilege.
17. Culture forms the very foundation of our group identity. Human oppression is deeply embedded within the concept of culture because patterns of domination and subordination make up the very fabric of the covert and “secret” dimensions of “deep” culture. A mature understanding of the phenomenon of culture is, therefore, vital to our understanding of human oppression. The concept of cultural relativity raises significant moral and ethical questions in human cultural encounters.
18. Ethical dilemmas are inevitable in human diversity work. Often, two or more highly regarded areas of human difference will come in conflict, for instance, religious beliefs and sexual orientation or freedom of speech and hate speech.
19. Struggling with others in the uncertainties of life (gray areas, moral and ethical dilemmas, paradoxes, ambiguities, contradictions) provides us with a glimpse into the processes necessary for building authentic communities of equality. It is within the infinite unknown (that which we don’t know that we don’t know) where equality is allowed to flourish because in our collective ignorance, we are all equals. Within the realms of vulnerability and woundedness; integrity, community, and authenticity are allowed to emerge and flourish.
20. It is as difficult for an “up” (the oppressor) to come down to a position of equality as it is for a “down” (the oppressed) to rise up to a position of equality.
21. Liberation from oppression is in the very nature of things. The oppressed do not tolerate their position indefinitely. The human spirit always longs for justice, dignity, respect, equality, and freedom. The very purpose of the human story is embedded in the revolutionary idea of social equality and social justice. In our evolutionary journey as a species, we have been engaged in the struggle for dignity, justice, and equality ever since we left the swamps.
22. Oppressors generally perceive that liberation processes are moving way too fast. The oppressed, on the other hand, believe that the very same processes are not moving fast enough. Furthermore, targets of oppression retain their individual and collective memory of their oppression much longer than do their perpetrators.
23. Confrontation is not as effective a tool as transformation is, in overcoming human oppression. Unlike change, which is inevitable, transformation is optional. Transformation requires a process of conscientization as well as an intentional act of the will. Transformation does not just move the pieces around; it changes the whole game board. Transformation is fundamentally a process of metamorphosis whose central feature is the chrysalis, or the ongoing need to die in order to be continually resurrected as something else. Authentic transformative educational processes that lead to meaningful cultural and systemic change operate holistically by winning our minds, touching our hearts, elevating our spirits, and changing our habits.
24. Education is better than ignorance. In the paradoxical nature of oppression, however, much human suffering and oppression has been, and continues to be, carried-out by persons who are also highly educated, particularly in the formal sense. In addition, some forms of education may, in themselves, contribute to the preservation of systems of oppression. Education for the liberation of the human spirit may take place only in those rare moments when we are treated as equals within the educational enterprise.
25. Paradoxically, many people feel excluded from diversity agendas. Most organizations, or individuals for that matter, have not defined diversity for themselves nor wrestled with its profound implications. Simplistic euphemisms and cliches such as “celebrate human differences” or “celebrate diversity”, for example, do not take into consideration the fact that a certain proportion of the human family arrives on planet earth as pedophiliacs.
26. As we struggle with issues of diversity, we must question how much human diversity we are personally and institutionally willing to tolerate and celebrate.
27. There is some evidence to indicate that victims (targets) of oppression tend to see their condition as institutional, cultural, and systemic whereas villains (perpetrators) tend to see it as a set of random individual acts perpetrated by bigots and other extremists.
28. There appears to be a strong correlation between competence and inclusion. The greater the sense of inclusion (mattering) that a person feels in a group, the greater the person’s sense of competence and vice versa.
29. Persons who consider themselves excluded from a given societal context appear to have an easier time when struggling with the quintessential question of human identity, namely, “Who am I?”
30. Persons who consider themselves mainstream in a given societal context, usually define themselves as “people,” “individuals,” “persons,” etc. Others tend to attach additional defining characteristics such as “Hispanic person,” “disabled individual,” and so on.
31. Persons traditionally excluded and disenfranchised from a particular group face the additional burden and expectation of being teachers, spokespersons, and experts on their particular marginalized status.
32. We tend to remember more vividly experiences of marginality than those of inclusion.
33. In an increasingly interdependent world, “nationalism” may no longer be an appropriate paradigm to help us resolve planetary challenges, including those of systemic oppression, exploitation, and suffering. In fact, we may be witnessing the birth of new ways of looking at ourselves that stretch the dotted lines on the private maps of the world we carry within the deep recesses of our minds. In the not-too-distant future, nationalism may be considered just another “ism.” In this regard, we need to begin to embrace our uncommon and fragile planet while, simultaneously and paradoxically, nurturing that most important of places: home. In this manner, we can start to explore the common links that transcend distance, difference, and indifference to unite us all. Cultivating this kind of vision will require the recognition that the planet is profoundly interdependent, far beyond what our individual cultures teach us. Quantum Physics, for example, has demonstrated that the Newtonian notion of objects as solid and separate is in fact an illusion. In a similar way, boundaries and borders defined by nationality, ethnicity, and other traits are merely artificial. Our collective fates are linked together far more than we suspect. The evidence for this is growing each day as we move towards globalization, in our continuing evolutionary journey.
34. Much research and investigative work in the Human Sciences needs to be done around the concepts of “passing” (the point at which a given society finds one acceptable), “stigma” (the consequences of social scarring by virtue of oppression), and “layering” of oppressions (persons who by virtue of their unique biology, history, and culture face multiple sources of marginalization in their lives). This field of inquiry is just beginning to be explored within this emerging area of the Human Sciences.
35. The cumulative effect of negative messages and/or the continual denial of aspects central to our humanity can ruin an otherwise good day. These messages, comments, or images can emanate from individuals or from society in general. We have coined this experience as “having a bad oppression day.”
36. Like many other things in the human experience, the centerpieces of diversity are contact, culture, complexity, and conflict.
37. Resistance and backlash are inevitable in human oppression work because of the challenges it posses to significant personal as well as group evil. In its noblest dimensions, diversity work uncovers the many secrets of our personal and organizational lives by speaking hard truths (hopefully in love, kindness, and compassion) to power. In doing so, diversity work not only labels but also, and more importantly, questions and challenges the central core of personal and organizational covert material and “deep” culture, namely issues of injustice and inequality. It is here, therefore, where the greatest potential for both promise as well as peril resides.
38. People fear what is unfamiliar or what they do not understand. Within this context, therefore, there is as much “racephobia” as there is homophobia. Fear is the glue that holds prejudice in place.
39. As our consciences awaken to the discovery and realization of the multiple ways in which we dehumanize one another, our organizations’ EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity) statement grows proportionately.
40. Legislation on matters of equality will only go so far. Unlearning human oppression; in its most basic elements of thoughts, feelings, and actions; is fundamentally a personal journey and a developmental process that should accompany us for a lifetime. In this regard, perhaps the journey is much more important than the destination because the best we can possibly aspire to become is to come to know ourselves as “recovering oppressors.” In this regard, we have much to learn from the time-tested theories and practices developed to deal with addictions, as hopeful models to assist us in overcoming significant individual as well as collective evil. In fact, “The Twelve Step Method”—the hallmark of the Alcoholic Anonymous (AA) movement—may provide us with a solid foundation for restoring and healing the significant brokenness of community as a result of personal and systemic oppression. Its simple yet elegant message of trusting in a higher power, cleaning our metaphorical house, and helping others in the process may contain the basis for authentic reconciliation and hope.

This is, by its very nature, an inconclusive list. We are all still learning a great deal about oppression, this unique phenomenon in the human experience. Our best hope for achieving some semblance of justice and equality in our interactions with “others” resides in the great human potential for personal as well as societal transformation—a capacity that is deeply rooted in our growing ability to experience authentic community through the process of sharing our common humanity with uncommon humility. We hope that The Diversity Institute at the University of Minnesota is making a contribution, however small, toward reaching that next stage in our evolutionary journey as a species.

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