We recently finished celebrating Passover, a holiday where “oppression” is an ongoing theme (and freedom, of course, is our cause to celebrate). We were challenged many times—through readings, traditions and symbolism—to experience the pain of oppression and celebrate the joys that accompany freedom. One particular text comes to mind:
“In every generation a person is obligated to see him/herself as if s/he, was taken out of Egypt.”
This statement encourages us to put ourselves in the shoes of people who are oppressed and to imagine what it would mean for us—personally—to be freed. Awhile back, I came across a tool that might help us better meet this challenge. I find it to be a very valuable resource when I begin to contemplate what it must be like to be oppressed, and to be free, in our society:
This chart lists various tendencies that can be found among people who are in positions of privilege and oppression. As the authors make clear, these are not personality characteristics that we can presume based on someone’s position of power: privileged or oppressed. However, it provides a framework from which we may be able to look at the behavioral tendencies that are common among people who experience privilege and oppression. It enables us to better understand our society’s expectations of people in these different environments and the ways in which these expectations are internalized to impact the day to day lives of everyday people.
Think back to the opening of the Passover seder and our invitation to the poor to come join us for the Passover meal. There is a symbolic attempt to level the power imbalance between people who live in poverty and people who don’t. All too often, people living in poverty are forced to encounter people with behaviors that mirror those listed in the attached document. In this way, the poor in our society are often being oppressed. The idea that we open our seder tables to the poor, indicates a desire to sit alongside the poor, to get to know the poor, to better understand the poor and to treat people who are poor with dignity.
I hope that this chart provides our readers with a greater understanding of how power impacts our personal lives, the lives of fellow community members and of people around the world who are oppressed regularly. I also hope that it provides ideas on how to best fight oppression and ensure that all people, in every generation, have the experience of freedom.
What are your experiences with privilege and oppression? Do you find this chart useful?
seder
Pronounced: SAY-der, Origin: Hebrew, literally “order”; usually used to describe the ceremonial meal and telling of the Passover story on the first two nights of Passover. (In Israel, Jews have a seder only on the first night of Passover.)
