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      Chapter 27. Cultural Competence in a Multicultural World >
         Section 3. Healing from the Effects of Internalized Oppressi... >
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Healing from the Effects of Internalized Oppression

  

Main Section

 Contributed by Marya Axner Edited by Bill Berkowitz

What is internalized oppression?

Why do community builders need to understand internalized oppression?

How do you help people heal from and overcome internalized oppression?



We have so many examples in history of groups uniting to take a stand against injustice and making significant gains: The Civil Rights movement, the Women's Movement, the Farm Workers Movement, to mention a few. These examples remind us of what can be accomplished when a group is able to unite and work together.

However, often when groups from the same cultural, ethnic, or other oppressed group come together to work on an issue, they have difficulties in uniting. Sometimes there are real differences in opinions and views. However, sometimes people within the same group have a difficult time working together. There can be in-fighting that gets in the way of accomplishing goals.

Do you ever wonder why this occurs? Doesn't it seem confusing and tragic that people who really understand each other and care deeply about the same issues also sometimes fight and criticize each other? These experiences are confounding ones. Why do these events happen? What can we do about it? Read on and find out.


What is internalized oppression?


When people are targeted, discriminated against, or oppressed over a period of time, they often internalize the myths and misinformation that society communicates to them about their group. For example, women might internalize the stereotype that they are not smart, or people of color might internalize the myth that they are not valuable members of our society, or Jews might internalize the myth that they are greedy.

When people from targeted groups internalize myths and misinformation, it can cause them to feel (often unconsciously) that in some way they are inherently not as worthy, capable, intelligent, beautiful, good, etc. as people outside their group. They turn the experience of oppression inward. They begin to feel that the myths and misinformation that society communicates are true and they act as if they were true. This is called internalized oppression.

Internalized oppression affects many groups of people: women, people of color, poor and working class people, people with disabilities, young people, elders, Jews, Catholics, immigrants, gays, and many other groups. (You may belong to one of these groups, even if it is not mentioned here. See Section 1: Understanding Culture and Diversity in Building Communities, for more information about understanding your own culture and identity.)

There are two ways that internalized oppression functions:

1. Internalized oppression operates on an individual basis. A person believes that the stereotypes and misinformation that she hears are true about herself. She holds herself back from living life to her full potential or she acts in ways that are self-destructive.

2. Internalized oppression occurs between members of the same cultural group. People in the same group believe (often unconsciously) the misinformation and stereotypes that society communicates about other members of their group. People turn the oppression on each other, instead of addressing larger problems in society. The results are that people treat each other in ways that are less than fully respectful. Often people from the same cultural group hurt, undermine, criticize, mistrust, fight with, or isolate themselves from each other.

It is important to note that internalized oppression is not the fault of people whom it affects. No one should be blamed or blame themselves for having been affected by discrimination. Nevertheless, as community members, we have to face these barriers in order to achieve our goals.

Here are some examples of internalized oppression:

Examples of internalized oppression as it occurs in individuals:

  • Women, low-income people, and people of color don't speak up as much in meetings because they don't think their contribution will be as important, or as "correct" as others. Often participants from these groups may have insight into how to solve a problem, but they hold back from sharing it.
  • In response to low expectations and lack of encouragement, some teenagers from oppressed groups believe that they won't succeed; consequently they give up on learning and pursuing their dreams.
  • A man abuses himself with drugs to numb his feelings, because he has been told throughout his life that it is not manly to cry or admit to being afraid.
  • People from oppressed groups often shy away from taking on leadership roles. They don't view themselves as having the capabilities of being a leader and their style doesn't match that of "traditional" leadership models.
  • A person who is not able get a job with decent wages decides it would be better to drink alcohol than keep fighting with his spouse.
  • A person who speaks with an accent feels that she should not build relationships with people outside her own culture because she is afraid that others will not want to be friends with her.


Examples of internalized oppression between members of the same cultural group:

  • Board members of a women's rights organization cannot get along. They bicker and criticize each other. Even though they care about the same issues, they often interrupt each other, preventing an open dialogue.
  • The membership of a low-income grassroots organization cannot support anyone from their own community who tries to take a leadership role in the organization. They claim that people in the leadership role become too "business-like" and "authoritative." The role of the leader is discussed endlessly and the organization cannot get to the business of defining and achieving goals.
  • Women who work on construction sites put each other down when they can't come to work because of child care problems or can't do the work because they are not as strong as some of the men.
  • There is a large population of Latin-American immigrants from different countries that live in a city. For the most part, all the Latinos have been kept out of city politics for many years by the established community. Sadly, when the Latinos from different countries try to organize to create a power base, the mistrust between them makes it difficult for them to work together.
  • Fearing that her children will not succeed in the mainstream culture, an immigrant mother is overly harsh in disciplining them so they will "fit in."
  • An African-American teenager is not accepted among his group of peers because he is interested in classical music; he is told he is not African-American enough.
  • A gay organization stays on the fringes of a drug prevention coalition. It does not consider itself an equal partner in decision-making and taking responsibility.
  • Men get into physical fights with other men because they have been conditioned to believe that their value is based on their ability to fight and participate in war.

As you can see, internalized oppression can have serious and heart-breaking consequences for communities. It holds people back from thinking well of themselves, from living full lives, and from standing up against injustice. It can be the source of physical or mental illness and self-destructive behavior. Internalized oppression can serve to divide people within the same group from each other so they are not as effective in supporting each other and standing together for change. It can also cause people to be suspicious of those outside their own group, making it difficult to build alliances.


Why do community builders need to understand internalized oppression?


Understanding internalized oppression is invaluable for community builders. People simply just can't effectively fight for themselves when they believe the problem is their own fault or that something is inherently wrong with them. To empower communities to become more effective at fighting the battles for better health care, good education, a safe environment, and adequate jobs, our community members have to learn how to overcome the discouragement, confusion, and divisions that are a result of internalized oppression.

Luckily, there are methods to overcome internalized oppression. People can heal from misinformation they have internalized and help others in their cultural groups heal as well. As people understand and overcome internalized oppression they will become more empowered to overcome the inequities and injustices present in our society at large.


How do you help people heal from and overcome internalized oppression?


There are several different ways that people can work together to overcome internalized oppression. Here are some steps you can take. They are first listed, and then elaborated upon one at a time.

  1. Become a close friend, ally, or mentor to individuals who you see are struggling with internalized oppression.

  2. Take pride in and celebrate culture.

  3. Meet in groups with people from similar backgrounds, to heal from the emotional hurts of internalized oppression.

  4. Take action against injustice and oppression.

  5. When you notice internalized oppression operating in groups, point it out, and help the group change direction.

  6. Protect young people from the effects of oppression.


1. Become a close friend, ally, or mentor to individuals who you see are struggling with internalized oppression.

Friendship and caring are two of the strongest weapons we have in combating internalized oppression. All the oppressions have one message in common--that people are not valuable and precious. Friendship provides a strong and effective contradiction to that message. What we communicate in our relationships and commitment to each other is more powerful than the message of oppression.

We care about our friends, family members, co-workers, or other community members. It is painful to watch them treating themselves badly or fail to live up to their capabilities. We can help our friends out when we see them acting self-destructively or being passive about conditions that negatively affect them.

For example, if you befriend a young person and make a commitment to spend time with them regularly doing activities that they enjoy, you can make a big difference in how that person is able to handle the injustices that they face growing up in a tough society. If any person know that just one person is one their side, they can manage to believe in themselves, even when everyone and everything else is telling them they are not OK.

2. Take pride in and celebrate your culture

Being a member of cultural group is often a source of people's strengths. Our cultures often give us our values, our sense of ourselves in history, our humor, our identities, and our world views. We often depend on our cultures to provide us with a community, a reference point, a home, and a place to get our bearings and remember what is important to us.

Even the discrimination that people have experienced and endured as members of cultural groups gives them strengths. People learn to survive, stand up for themselves, be resourceful, have a sense of humor, and bounce back. People develop a sense of what long-term commitment is all about.

Taking pride in our cultures and celebrating them is essential in combating internalized oppression, because it gives us a more accurate view of our cultures than what is communicated in the media or by the society at large.

What are some ways of taking pride in our cultures?

  • Reading and learning more about our histories helps people gain perspective on how hard their ancestors fought for themselves, often in the face of great odds. Organizing a study group or book club for this purpose can be especially helpful in building community around cultural pride.
  • Holding cultural celebrations and practicing rituals gives people a sense of hope, joy, pride, and meaning. It helps to remind people of what their cultures stand for, how rich they are, and what they've accomplished. Cultural arts celebrations can buoy peoples spirits and give people a reminder of their strength, goodness, and creativity.

Note: Inviting people from other cultures to these events can also be useful at times. When people from the outside understand your culture, it is an important first step in developing a group of active allies who are willing to go to stand up for your group.

3. Meet in groups with people from similar backgrounds, to heal from the emotional hurts of internalized oppression

Re-valuation Counseling has developed a model in which people of similar backgrounds meet in groups to heal from internalized oppression. In these groups people encourage each other to remember that they are good, worthy, capable, intelligent, beautiful, etc. and that others in their culture are good as well. In these groups, people take turns talking about how their cultural oppression has personally affected them while others listen.

One of the most helpful results of meeting in groups of people with similar backgrounds is that people understand that they are not alone in their experiences of oppression or in the way they feel bad about themselves. Sharing, for example, the experience of growing up around racism, anti-Semitism, or classism, helps people understand they have common feelings to other people in their group. This removes the illusion that the experience is somehow inherently their problem--and that they are somehow the source of their own difficulties, instead of problems in the society at large.

Here is the format for a healing from internalized oppression group: (For more information about setting up groups to heal from internalized oppression, see Re-evaluation Counseling in the Organizations listing at the end of this section.)

  • Meet in groups of 6-10 people at a regular meeting time.
  • It is best to have an agreement of confidentiality.
  • Each group should have one main leader, but everyone should see themselves as responsible for making the group go well.
  • To start, each person has a turn to talk about what they appreciate about their culture/group and something that is has gone well in their lives since the group last met.
  • Each person has a turn each meeting to think/talk/feel while the group pays attention to them. No one interrupts the person during this time. During this turn, the person has a turn to talk about their experiences as a member of this group. It can be helpful to talk about early memories of being targeted or oppressed.
  • People may experience emotional feelings as they talk about these experiences. Feeling emotions is part of the healing process. Laughing, crying, trembling all help people heal from the hurts of oppression and reclaim their pride, humanity, and power.
  • When these groups meet over an extended period of time people build more safety to talk about important issues.

4. Take action against injustice and oppression.

When people take a stand against injustice and oppression it can be a strong antidote to internalized oppression. Taking charge of an unjust situation and setting it right goes miles in healing people from the oppression and injustice they have endured over time.

Example:

In the book The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It: The Memoir of Jo Ann Gibson Robinson (see Resources), Ms. Robinson talks about the sense of pride that she and others felt when determined and committed Blacks joined together for the bus boycott.

Before Monday was half gone, Negroes had made history. Never before had they united in such a manner. There was open respect and admiration in the eyes of many whites who had looked on before, dubious and amused. Even clerks in dime stores, all white, were more cordial. They were heard to add, after a purchase by a black customer, "Y'all come back and see us," which was a very unusual occurrence. The black customers held their heads higher. They felt reborn, important for the first time. A greater degree of race pride was exhibited. Many were themselves surprised at the response of the masses, and could not explain, if they had wanted to, what had changed them overnight into fearless, courageous, proud people, standing together for human dignity, civil rights, and, yes, self-respect! There was a stick-togetherness that drew them like a magnet. They showed a genuine fondness for one another. They were really free--free inside! They felt it! Acted It! Manifested it in their entire beings! They took great pride in being black.

5. When you notice internalized oppression operating in groups, point it out, and help the group change direction.

In some organizations people tend to criticize each other, get into fights, lack discipline, and undermine or attack leadership. These problems have a range of causes. Oftentimes, the cause is, to some extent, due to internalized oppression. This is especially true if all or most of members of the group or organization are from a similar cultural background. Unfortunately, the harsher the oppression has been on a group, the more these dynamics operate. Again, this is not the fault of the group that has been targeted. Nevertheless, in order to make a group successful, this dynamic should be recognized and turned around.

How can you tell when internalized oppression is the source of the a difficulty a group? Although there is no sure formula for knowing to what extent internalized oppression is operating, you can look for some clues that might help you make an educated guess. You can ask yourself these questions to help you understand the situation:

  • Are people acting towards each other in ways similar to how the larger society mistreats them? For example, if the particular group is stereotyped for not being intelligent, do people act towards each other as if they were less than intelligent?
  • Do these problems exist throughout the organization? If the problem shows itself in many different settings, it may be more likely that it is internalized oppression that is the main difficulty, rather than a few individual's problems.
  • Do individuals in the organization struggle with self-esteem, have difficulties in taking care of themselves, or treating themselves well in other ways?

Even if you don't know for sure if internalized oppression is the main problem, it may at least part of the difficulty. In any case, many of the following recommendations will help any group that suffers from continual arguing, criticizing, undermining, or other related problems.

What can you do when you notice or suspect internalized oppression going on in a group?

  • Visibly model how to treat others with respect, and set a good tone. For example, if everyone is criticizing the leader, you can point out his good qualities and accomplishments. If you lead the way in doing this, people will notice. One person, if they step outside a negative pattern, can often steer the whole group.
  • Take some time in a meeting for people to appreciate each other and notice what the group has accomplished. When people feel discouraged about their progress, they are more prone to treat each other badly.
  • Point out the difficulty without blaming anyone: You can say something like, "Let's take a step back and look at how this meeting is going. Do you think if we all made an agreement to not interrupt or criticize each other, we could accomplish more?
  • Explain to people about what internalized oppression is, and how you see that is operates in your organization. Explain, as you see it, how people are hurting each other; and point out the similarity to how society hurts the group as a whole. For example, if you are in a group of Jews that repeatedly attacks and argues with each other, talk about the history of Jewish oppression; point out that Jews were attacked over centuries--which has had an effect on the culture, overall. If people understand this dynamic, they may be able to depersonalize the difficulty and change their behavior.
  • If the problem occurs in a meeting, have people break into pairs in which each person gets a turn to vent their feelings while the other person listens. Then have people come back to the business of the meeting.
  • Take a stand and be firm. Whenever group members are putting each other down or acting in a way that has negative consequences, you can take a principled stand against what is occurring. Your stand will set a tone that others may be inclined to follow.
  • Welcome new members into your group. Often groups with similar backgrounds become cliquish. They can tend to exclude new people much in the same way that their group has been excluded by the larger society. Establish a policy to welcome new members and get them into the center of the organization quickly.

6. Protect young people from the effects of oppression

Internalized oppression makes its biggest impression on children, because they don't have any context for understanding the injustices of society. It is easy to personalize the negative messages that are coming at you if you don't have a framework for understanding oppression.

There are a few ways to help young people understand oppression and protect them from its effects. First, it helps to explain to children about how and why oppression works so they have a framework for understanding it. This can help a young person make sense of the mistreatment they experience or witness, rather than blaming themselves or others in their own group for it. For example, if you give African-American children a history of slavery in the U.S., they will be able to make more sense of why racism operates today.

We can also set up environments for our children in which they and their cultures are cherished. For example, we can make schools become multicultural institutions. Teachers and administrators should understand the importance of integrating the histories and cultures of many groups into the curriculum. School staff should understand how to treat children equitably and have high expectations of every student.


To sum it up


Ordinary people are as intelligent and capable as the "experts." We have the capacity to figure out how to solve problems and transform our communities into places in which everyone has opportunities to live full lives.

Internalized oppression holds people back, by undermining their confidence and by making it difficult for people to work together. It is painful when people limit themselves as a result of the discrimination and oppression they have experienced.

Fortunately, we can understand how internalized oppression works and what to do to overcome it. Simply understanding how it works can help people turn around some situations. Healing from and overcoming internalized oppression will go further in making communities more effective. Undoing internalized oppression may be a key issue for fully empowering communities so they can do the work that needs to be done.



We encourage the reproduction of this material, but ask that you credit

the Community Tool Box: http://ctb.ku.edu



Resources


Print

Brown, C.R., & Mazza, G.J. (1997). Healing into action. Washington, D.C.: National Coalition Building Institute.

Butcher, N. (1996). Undoing the smile. In M. T. Reddy. (Ed.), Everyday acts against racism (pp. 12-19). Seattle: Seal Press.

Elrich, M. (1994). The stereotype within. Educational Leadership, 51, (8), 12-15.

Garrow, D.J. (1978). The Montgomery bus boycott and the women who started it: The memoir of Jo Ann Gibson Robinson. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, p. 61.

Lipsky, S. (1987). Internalized oppression. Seattle, WA: Rational Island Publishers.

Okihiro, G.Y. (1994). Margins and mainstreams: Asians in American history and culture. Seattle, WA: The University of Washington Press.

Steinem, G. (1992). Revolution from within. Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company.

Tan, C.I. (1993). The Liberation of Asians. Seattle, WA: Rational Island Publishers.


Organizations

Center for Living Democracy
289 Fox Farm Rd
PO Box 8187
Brattleboro, VT 05304-8187
(802) 254-1234

National Coalition Building Institute (NCBI)
1835 K Street, N.W., Suite 715
Washington, D.C. 20006
(202) 785-9400

Re-evaluation Counseling
719 Second Avenue North
Seattle, WA 98109
(206) 284-0113
http://www.rc.org/

Southern Poverty Law Center
400 Washington Ave.
Montgomery, AL 36104
http://www.splcenter.org/

Study Circle Resource Center
Topsfield Foundation, Inc.
P.O Box 203
Pomfret, CT
(860) 928-2616
scrc@neca.com