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Definition, as put forth by Marion Young

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Definition, as put forth by Marion Young

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"The injustice of exploitation consists in social processes that bring about a transfer of energies from one group to another to produce unequal distributions, and in the way in which social institutions enable a few to accumulate while they constrain many more." (Young 38)

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One image capturing the prior definition

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One image capturing the prior definition

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Source: https://qa.philstar.com/opinion/2019/08/29/1947293/failure-capitalism

A sight like this is common in Metro Manila, as profits from business go back into the development of their districts while those districts border slums, showcasing the growing disparity in classes that piggybacks off of the work of the people that live in those slums.

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Social Categories that Exploitation operates with

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Social Categories that Exploitation operates with

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Exploitation primarily operates within the category of Class as the model of capitalism runs off of utilizing the work power of the working class to bring in profit and grow business; simply put, capitalism cannot work without exploitation.

While it serves as the primary category wherein Exploitation is prominent, it can occur in any other context wherein a dominant power or category utilizes those beneath them to grow their own money and power, such as in Race as was the case with slavery in American colonies and in Gender with the patriarchy leading to womens' work to be of primary or even sole benefit to men.

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As highlighted in the photo above, class disparity and the cycle of exploitation is tangible in the bustling region of Metro Manila. Many are trapped in the city, lured in with the promise of a better life and access to better work, making the gamble to move there only to have the struggles and living conditions compound onto them until they have no means or money to make the trip back. It's a cruel cycle present in many dense metropolitan districts around the world as dreams are dashed by finding out the true winners in a capitalist system the hard way, those being the capitalists.

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Example of a method to challenge this face of oppression

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Example of a method to challenge this face of oppression

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One way that class exploitation is able to continue with minimal protest from the working class stems from a concealment of the oppression that laborers are subjected to. By having it be obscured by convoluted contracts and the blame being put on the laborer through those contracts being voluntarily signed, even if a no would mean the laborer would have to struggle and starve with no wage, class exploitation makes itself seem like a normal facet of the system that workers participate in.

As such, challenging this oppression can come in the form of better education and awareness of workers standards and contracts. From learning from working standards and laws in other countries, to demystifying various terms and clauses on contracts, building up an aware worker means building up a worker who knows when they are being exploited; this would allow for a workforce that is more able and willing to resist it through avenues such as unionizing and striking.

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The definition used in class is that of the "expelling of people whose labor capitalism does not or will not use because their labor is considered worthless or useless".

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One image capturing the prior definition

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One image capturing the prior definition

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In the case of the US in the midst of racial segregation and the Jim Crow laws, workplaces and those running them enforced this discrimination due to the perception they had towards people of color, seeing them as less of an American and thus less capable of doing the entailed work as compared to a White person.

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Social Categories that Marginalization operates with

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Social Categories that Marginalization operates with

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While Class informs the system surrounding Marginalization, its operation occurs within the categories for which the label of "unsuitable for working" are applied, ranging from Ability to even Race and Gender. The system of exploitation seeks to make itself as efficient as possible and will work to excise whatever it doesn't deem as efficient: a label that serves to represent the types of biases and prejudices those running the system have. For example, those considered disabled, whether mentally or physically, are considered inefficient due to the cost of equitable accommodations, meaning that expulsion is the choice that capitalists lean towards.

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What is one method of challenging marginalization? Explain with a concrete example. Please include at least one real-life example with a source. 

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What is one method of challenging marginalization? Explain with a concrete example. Please include at least one real-life example with a source. 

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N'COBRA (National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America) defines reparations as the “process of repairing, healing and restoring a people injured because of their group identity and in violation of their fundamental human rights by governments, corporations, institutions and families” (N’COBRA). Reparations aim to uplift a particular marginalized group by providing economic resources, establishing community institutions and having the government fully acknowledge and apologize for the ways through which they discriminated and put down the particular demographic. In the case of reparations for African Americans, the push for reparations entails the provision of resources as outlined in laws that the US Government did not follow through with, such as Special Field Order no. 15 or the provision of 40 acres of land and a mule. Overall, reparations recognize just how much being marginalized entails, and aims to provide a holistic solution that tackles as much of that scope as possible.

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What Are Reparations

Reparations is a process of repairing, healing and restoring a people injured because of their group identity and in violation of their fundamental human rights by governments, corporations, institutions and families. Those groups that have been injured have the right to obtain from the government, corporation, institution or family responsible for the injuries that which they need to repair and heal themselves. In addition to being a demand for justice, it is a principle of international human rights law. As a remedy, it is similar to the remedy for damages in domestic law that holds a person responsible for injuries suffered by another when the infliction of the injury violates domestic law. Examples of groups that have obtained reparations include Jewish victims of the Nazi Holocaust, Japanese Americans interned in concentration camps in the United States during WWII, Alaska Natives for land, labor, and resources taken, victims of the massacre in Rosewood, Florida and their descendants, Native Americans as a remedy for violations of treaty rights, and political dissenters in Argentina and their descendants.

In The Photo Above: Baba Jahahara is an N'COBRA Life Member and Past National Male Co-Chair who has helped popularize and organize for Reparations while residing and working in Chicago, New York City, the Oakland/San Francisco & California Bay Area around the Afrikan continent and diaspora. In 2014, he retired as a labor union activist and negotiator, commUNITY worker, solar designer and environmental justice fighter. For more than 50 years, he has utilized his people skills, writings, music, art and Ma'at Spiritual work to promote Pan Afrikan Unity, revolutionary (inter)nationalism, human rights for the imprisoned, anti-corporate capitalism-imperialism and socialism.

What Forms Should Reparations Take?

Reparations can be in as many forms as necessary to equitably (fairly) address the many forms of injury caused by chattel slavery and its continuing vestiges. The material forms of reparations include cash payments, land, economic development, and repatriation resources particularly to those who are descendants of enslaved Africans. Other forms of reparations for Black people of African descent include funds for scholarships and community development; creation of multi-media depictions of the history of Black people of African descent and textbooks for educational institutions that tell the story from the African descendants' perspective; development of historical monuments and museums; the return of artifacts and art to appropriate people or institutions; exoneration of political prisoners; and, the elimination of laws and practices that maintain dual systems in the major areas of life including the punishment system, health, education and the financial/economic system. The forms of reparations received should improve the lives of African descendants in the United States for future generations to come; foster economic, social and political parity; and allow for full rights of self-determination.

Who Should Receive Reparations?

Within the broadest definition, all Black people of African descent in the United States should receive reparations in the form of changes in or elimination of laws and practices that allow them to be treated differently and less well than White people. For example, ending racial profiling and discrimination in the provision of health care, providing scholarship and community development funds for Black people of African descent, and supporting processes of self-determination will not only benefit descendants of enslaved Africans, but all African descendant peoples in the United States who because of their color are victims of the vestiges of slavery. This is similar to the Rosewood, Florida reparations package, where some forms of reparations were provided only to persons who descended from those who were injured, died and lost their homes and other forms were made available to all Black people of African descent in Florida.

Why Are African Descendants Entitled To Reparations?

The Trans-Atlantic Slave "Trade" and chattel slavery, more appropriately called the Holocaust of Enslavement or Maafa,/ Maangamizi was and is a crime against humanity. Millions of Africans were brutalized, murdered, raped and tortured. They were torn from their families in Africa, kidnapped and lost family and community associations. African peoples in the United States and the prior colonies were denied the right to maintain their language, spiritual practices and normal family relations, always under the threat of being torn from newly created families at the whim of the "slave owner." Chattel slavery lasted officially from 1619 to 1865. It was followed by 100 years of government led and supported denial of equal and humane treatment including Black Codes, convict lease, sharecropping, peonage, and Jim Crow practices of separate and unequal accommodations. African descendants continue to be denied rights of self-determination, inheritance, and full participation in the United States government and society. The laws and practices in the United States continue to treat African peoples in a manner similar to slavery - maintaining dual systems in virtually every area of life including punishment, health care, education and wealth, maintaining the myths of White superiority and African and African descendants' inferiority.

This is a Swahili term meaning disaster that has been used for a number of years to describe these conditions and has been used most notably in the writings and presentations of Marimba Ani, Ph.D., noted African-centered anthropologist and activist.

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250 years of slavery. 90 years of Jim Crow. 60 years of separate but equal. 35 years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.

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Stay connected so we can build together About Us, Our Mission & Our Cause Register & Help Make Change What Are Reparations Reparations is a process of repairing, healing and restoring a people injured because of their group identity and in violation of their fundamental human rights by governments, corporations, institutions and families.

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How does marginalization connect to exploitation? 

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How does marginalization connect to exploitation? 

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One aspect of exploitation is that failure to participate in the system leaves you without the resources to be able to survive, essentially making the "choice" a weighted and coerced one. With this in mind, when you are then marginalized and are excluded from being able to work, it essentially entails death in the system that currently stands. Simply put, exploitation and what it entails informs and characterizes the consequences of being marginalized.

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Powerlessness is the oppression that the working class subconsciously places upon itself as people in the workforce come to rise closer to the top, more closely embodying an ideal that others should strive for. Professionals represent the closest one can become to holding the status of the capitalists, and those who don't embody that are then looked down upon, rendering them powerless in the sociocultural context.

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How does Powerlessness relate to Exploitation / Marginalization?

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How does Powerlessness relate to Exploitation / Marginalization?

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Powerlessness speaks to how deeply rooted much of the systems of Exploitation and Marginalization are, with it being how the values and ambitions that the system instill in people show. While it bears this origin point, it differs heavily as it springs up from within the workforce and applies it to itself, as those who attain better education, resources and credibility towards their field become considered closer to those in the dominating position, leading to a society that provides them more credit and status while belittling those without it even more.

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In which categories does powerlessness work?

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In which categories does powerlessness work?

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Powerlessness works in so many categories as the standards that dictate "professionalism" stem from an archetype embodied by those that sit at the top or as close to it as possible. This means that it can carry over into ability, wherein having a certain disability undermines your status at work as "professionals" are perceived as independent, well-bodied individuals that can exude status even by the way they stand or sit. Even in citizenship it shows as those without an American citizenship that seek it are often all relegated into the singular category of "people seeking the American Dream", one that places them all in the position of seeking out any work to make ends meet and not in one that considers their ambitions or capabilities to seek professional work.

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We discussed code switching as a potential way to challenge (linguistic) powerlessness. Share your reflection on code switching if it is an effective way.

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We discussed code switching as a potential way to challenge (linguistic) powerlessness. Share your reflection on code switching if it is an effective way.

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Growing up, the implications of code switching were much more personal, inane or even cute and intimate. It felt empowering to have an identity that had been uniquely placed on two streams of language and thought, as many of the English speakers I knew only ever spoke English. As I see it, code switching, in its idealism, can stand to be the means for which people can combat powerlessness, either through reinforcing my identity in the way it did for me or being the means through which people can either reach for better opportunities or speak truth to power. However, in reality, the dynamic that languages have is much more unequal than in this ideal, meaning that code switching often stands as a form of survival and a need for people, making it much more limiting than it is fulfilling.

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Cultural Imperialism is the form of oppression that occurs when a culture and its perspective dominate a society, causing other cultures, perspectives and the people that bear them to be overwritten, stereotyped and considered foreign.

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In which social categories does cultural imperialism work? List two prominent categories with examples

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In which social categories does cultural imperialism work? List two prominent categories with examples

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With Cultural Imperialism being a matter of a dominant culture setting itself as the norm and othering those that don't fully adhere to it, its oppression reaches into whatever category has an outlined "norm" established by the culture. For example, in the category of Ability, discourse and perception surrounding those with mental and physical disabilities is often done and perpetuated by those that aren't disabled, as seen with numerous misconceptions surrounding various mental ailments and disabilities stemming from media misrepresentation. Another example is in that of Class, wherein the platform that those in higher socioeconomic positions have allows them the capability to both dictate the perception people have over poorer people and even tell stories about them in the first place. Wealth enables and furthers the reach of one's voice, giving them more control over other's narratives.

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What is double-consciousness? Define based on your own life experience

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What is double-consciousness? Define based on your own life experience

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W. E. B. Du Bois describes double-consciousness to be the manner of “always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity”. What this entails is that members of dominated cultures are influenced by the dominant culture of their society, a culture that already regards them as outside of the norm. This leads to them adopting these perspectives that alienate them more and reinforces a sense of inferiority in them as they are simultaneously viewing themselves through their immediate culture and the dominant culture that gazes at them.

A personal example of this is the cultural imperialism that the Philippines currently experiences as a result of its history as a colonized country, with affirmation constantly being sought out from Western powers like that of the US and minimizing itself when it lacks that affirmation. Stories like "Hollywood star visited Palawan and loved it!" to "Stephen Hawking's housemaid was Filipino!" got full air time on national news and so many pressing issues and stories, both good and bad, were swept under the rug because of the fact that they lacked this international affirmation or the ability to be taken to that level.

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What  are some ways to get rid of cultural imperialism (you can focus on how to get rid of double-consciousness)

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What  are some ways to get rid of cultural imperialism (you can focus on how to get rid of double-consciousness)

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A large chunk of the power that cultural imperialism, and double consciousness as a result, have stems from the way in which it establishes itself as invisible, becoming the norm or status quo that people come in to. By recognizing where these ideas come from and who writes them, such as the ways in which a society's beauty standards are greatly affected and perpetuated by media and marketing, they can be knocked down from this position of the "primary" narrative and be dealt with closer as other ideas, perspectives and cultures are.

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What does it mean that violence is a social practice, beyond being individual victimization? 

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What does it mean that violence is a social practice, beyond being individual victimization? 

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What enables Violence to be oppressive is its enabling and justification by one's social setting. By excluding, alienating and demeaning a group of people, a dominant culture breaks down the barriers that stand in place between a person and the utilization of violence. The average person doesn't harbor thoughts of violence towards others around him, but by framing the person on the receiving end as "deserving" of it and either minimizing repercussion or even protecting the person for carrying out violence, a society can be socialized into the normalization and utilization of violence against those they deem lesser.

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In which social categories does violence work? Give an example to illustrate?

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In which social categories does violence work? Give an example to illustrate?

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Violence works in social categories on the basis of what or who the dominant culture or system deem deserving of violence. One such example is that of its operations in the context of Class, wherein people sitting at the lowest parts of the socioeconomic ladder are considered wastes of space, leading to violent action like displacement either by the hands of law enforcement or even other citizens being normalized or considered warranted. On the other end of this spectrum, a higher socioeconomic position allows for better access to safety from violence, such as gated neighborhoods with law enforcement presence, financial access to defense by law, and even the ability to call the shots of the police when someone sits at the highest points of capitalist society.

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How would cultural imperialism promote violence as a social practice? 

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How would cultural imperialism promote violence as a social practice? 

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Cultural Imperialism sets a particular culture and its perspective as the norm, subsequently dictating the perception that people have over others that aren't fully representative of it and deeming them as others or even lesser. This control that the dominant power has over the narrative of others allows these powers to justify violence, with Marion Young mentioning that, “[t]he dissonance generated by such a challenge to the hegemonic cultural meanings can also be a source of irrational violence” (Young 44).