Why is it so hard to challenge oppression?

This week, I've been sitting with a comment that one of the Shaping Playshop participants shared during our time together.

Why is it so hard to resist the status quo?

I would add, why is it so hard to challenge oppression...

...even if you know it's bullshit or

...even you feel depleted by it or

...even if you know what your liberation would look like.

My sense is that you may not see ALL of the layers that are involved in holding up this Matrix/ Status Quo/ The System/ White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy (whatever you call it).

Let's get into those layers. The best tool I've found to see these layers is called the 4 I's of Oppression described by John Bell (who's a social justice activist, author and trainer).

The 4 I's of Oppression include:

• Ideological
• Institutional
• Interpersonal
• Internalized

John Bell sees the 4 I's operating like this:

Let's add some texture to each of these dimensions.

1. Ideological Oppression refers to the ideas that are used to subjugate and dominate marginalized groups.

You ever heard the phrase White lie or Black sheep? Those phrases are rooted in anti-Blackness, propping up the idea that to be Black is inferior to being White.

If you swap Black with Woman, Non-Binary, Queer, Autistic, Fat, or any other marginalized identity and you'll find similar messaging.

2. Institutional Oppression refers to the ways in which these ideas of goodness or worthiness get played out into systems and structures to keep marginalized groups out and feeling out of place if we do get up in there.

Have you ever noticed how small the seats on chairs are or how fucking close together they put them in public events, it's cause ain't nobody worried about fat bodies?

Because Ideological Oppression says our fat bodies should not be seen or appreciated. It's also the reason why when you do see a fat person feeling themselves, you feel proud or inspired or maybe envious cause we collectively have this oppressive idea rooted in anti-Fatness.

3. Interpersonal Oppression refers to how we play a part in upholding these oppressive ideas between each other, likely with the intention of protecting each other and keeping us alive by making us more "good" or "valuable" in the eyes of System.

This might just be me but growing up I was so insecure about my arm hair. Like all oppression, we aren't born with these beliefs. We inherit them because of the way they are passed down through generations.

And I inherited this insecurity from my childhood friends who would often comment about how Chewbacca-like my arms were. At minimum, it was unkind and at maximum, it left me with an emotional scar.

I know that these friends inherited an idea that hair was associated with manliness and as a Woman-identifying person, they were questioning and/or were concerned about my Woman-ness, particularly as it relates to my attractiveness. I see that now. I also see this with the ways some of us have been told we needed to be "twice as good" or "if you don't do XYZ, you won't find a partner or friends".

4. Internalized Oppression is the layer where we take the inherited ideas at the ideological level, the inherited experiences at the institutional level and the inherited coping mechanisms at the interpersonal level and we try to make it make sense, often at the expense of our own humanity.

From this place, we might make sense of all of these things by believing that:

• I am hard to love
• I don't get to be seen or heard
• I cannot risk trusting others
• I am reject-able
• I can be discarded
• I get left behind

and probably more narratives I can't think of at the moment. I see why we come to that conclusion.

And I see how that shows up in our leadership.

How does this relate to leadership?

I know that we like to think that we leave these things at the metaphorical door, but we don't.

We really, really don't.

We carry this "baggage" with us in how we show up and move through the world, particularly as it relates to the workplace or the work that we're doing.

But we don't need to beat ourselves up over it. I'm saying this in case you wanna beat yourself up over not knowing all the things, please don't.

The Matrix thrives because it operates in the background, in a somewhat out-of-sight, out-of-conscious-mind kind of way.

Every day I learn a new thing that is rooted in oppression.

AND

Every day I feel a little freer despite it all.

Based on my experience as a community organizer, social worker and facilitator, I've remixed how I see these layers operating in real time.

If you'd like support on the particular Matrix you're navigating and how your resistance to it could be a little less lonely and a little less futile, get at me.