Structural Oppression In American Culture

Citizens of any society are destined to inherit a social narrative specific to their culture. They are conditioned to think, act and speak a certain way out of habit without second thought. Unfortunately, this gives rise to structural oppression: the systematic mistreatment of specific people within an institution. The deeply rooted, neocolonial, American social narrative inherently oppresses those who do not fit the european ideals that were glorified hundreds of years ago. The most significant forms of structural oppression are the racist, ableist and classist tendencies of modern American culture.
Authors reflect on their own experiences in an attempt to raise awareness and address the source of structural oppression. Romano speaks to issues of race and The U.S.’s corrupt justice system, in his book Racial Reckoning. Clare highlights the daily struggles of a …show more content…
The U.S. avoids revisiting the ugly aspects of its past to obscure its shameful actions and maintain its progressive reputation. This idea holds true in the justice system. Old court cases that ended with a clearly unjust verdicts are kept hidden and rarely reopened. “While many countries around the world have created truth commissions or ordered official investigations to explore and redress their histories of violence, there has never been an official truth commission in the United States.” Concealing shameful realities as opposed to addressing them, allows modern racism to continue unnoticed. The public wrongly assumes that because some injustices have been rectified, racism is no longer an issue. “The ideology of colorblindness or post-racialism insists the the government no longer needs to undertake racial remedies or engage in race-based decision making...It suggests that racism is a thing of the past”. This type of denial avoids confronting the issue and allows it to grow