Concepts of Privilege and Oppression

Nathon D. Camacho-Morfin

This paper will dissect a passage from Monica Casper's "No Justice for Trayvon: White Women in the Jury Box," and argue that those of privilege are blind to the oppression of others or choose to stay ignorant of these matters. It will further argue that racism, capital, and the prison industrial complex, all contribute to sustaining privilege and the oppression of others.

In "No Justice for Trayvon: White Women in the Jury Box," Monica Casper writes about her experience when she and her colleague, a white woman, had a conversation about the infamous Zimmerman trial. In this conversation, her colleague stated, "We need to trust the justice system . . . this was a case we never should have known about it was blown up by the media and it never even should have come to trial" ("No Justice for Trayvon"). Casper goes on to say how they both had different feeling about this matter, she also points out how her colleague uses the term "we" say that it is used for "inclusion as often as it is of exclusion" ("No Justice for Trayvon").

It is the very same "we" that Dorothy Allison writes about in "A Question of Class". Allison talks about how class and privilege are sustained by the "Us vs. Them" mentality. In that mentality, there is always a "we" and a "they", this creates a disconnect from others and makes one ignorant of what privileges others lack. It also perpetuates the false belief that in order to maintain privilege and security the "they" must stay oppressed. Allison writes that "the horror of class stratification, racism, and prejudices is that some people begin to believe that the security of their families and communities depends on the oppression of others, that for some to have good lives there must be other whose lives are truncated and brutal (35). Allison points out class stratification as one form of the oppression of others, class stratification can be characterized by the three forms of capital, which are economic capital, social capital, and cultural capital.

Another form of oppression that Allison points out is racism, which can be seen in the transcript of George Zimmerman's call to the police. "He looks black... Now he's just staring at me... These assholes always get away" ("No Justice for Trayvon"). Again, we can see a display of the "Us vs. Them" mentality in this quote. Another way racism is displayed is in the prison industrial complex as described by Angela Davis in "Are Prisons Obsolete?".

Davis discusses that prisons are ideologies of the middle class, but most importantly the white middle class. Consequently, the majority of the prisoners are people of color because they are seen as undesirables. This is a tool of oppression, which is then used to exploit prisoner labor force and generate profit for private corporations. Davis states, "The fact, for example, that many corporations with global markets now rely on prisons as an important source of profit helps us to understand the rapidity with which prisons began to proliferate when official studies indicated that the crime rate was falling. The notion of a prison industrial complex also insists that the racialization of prison populations--- and this is not only true of the United States, but of Europe, South America, and Australia as well--- is not an incidental feature" (Davis, p.85)

In "Racism and Feminism,", Bell Hooks, states that "The first white women's rights advocates were never seeking social equality for ALL women; they were seeking social equality for WHITE women" (p.124). Indicating that white women did not consider black women's oppression or black women's concerns, as their own concerns. We can see from Casper's colleague's response that she too does not view the Zimmerman verdict at all upsetting like Casper does, showing that she does not consider, or chooses to be ignorant in the oppression of black people, because of her white privilege; just like the early women's rights advocates were.

Works Cited

Allison, Dorothy. 1994. "A question of class." In Skin: Talking about Sex, Class & Literature. Ithaca, NY: Firebrand Books; pp. 13-36.

Casper, Monica J. 2013. "No Justice for Trayvon: White Women in the Jury Box." The Feminist Wire. July 17

Davis, Angela. 2003. Are Prisons Obsolete? New York: Seven Stories Press. 9-21 and 84-104.

Hooks, bell. 1981. "Ch. 4: Racism and Feminism." In Ain't I a Woman? Boston: South End Press. Pp. 119-158.