A Comparative Analysis of Multiple Oppressions Faced by Individuals

This essay explores the multifaceted nature of oppression, focusing on the experiences of individuals as described by authors Henry Louis Gates, Gloria Anzaldua, and Judith Ortiz Cofer. It examines how factors such as racism, language barriers, and stereotypes contribute to microaggressions an...Read More

Running head: MULTIPLE TYPES OF OPPRESSIONS FACED BY INDIVIDUALS
Multiple Types of Oppression Faced by Individuals
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1MULTIPLE TYPES OF OPPRESSION FACED BY INDIVIDUALS
The term Intersectionality is used to refer to a sociological theory that suggests the
various kinds of oppression that can be inflicted on an individual because of racism, sexism,
homophobia, trans-sexuality or other factors. The concept is generally used to describe the
system of feminist oppression and was first proposed by legal scholar by the legal scholar
Kimberle Crenshaw in 1989 and is generally used in the field of critical theory. The theory
states that an individual may face many other types of oppression other than the ones that are
given above in the statement. This even includes the language or the appearance of an
individual. There have been instances of individuals who have been oppressed on the basis of
such grounds. All these factors prove that oppression can come upon an individual at any
moment. This is what the authors has expressed in their respective articles.
The purpose of this essay is to determine how the authors Henry Lois Gates,
Gloria Anzaldua as well as Judith Ortiz Cofer faced various forms of oppression as well
as micro-aggression.
Oppression is one of the most important issuers that human beings encounter in the
present age. They are oppressed not only on the basis of racism, sexuality or the colour of
their skin but also on the basis of their language as well as the place they are originally from.
It is because of this reason that the people in the countries like Australia, United Kingdom or
even the United States faces issues of oppression from the people of those countries. This is
because they get accused of their different languages, or colour of their skin due to which the
people of those countries cannot accept those people to be a part of that country (Armenta,
220).
It this dislike towards the foreigners which leads to the oppression towards these
foreigners. Language is another factor which might also be a reason for the oppression to take

2MULTIPLE TYPES OF OPPRESSION FACED BY INDIVIDUALS
place. This is exactly the kind of oppression that is faced by the author Gloria Anzaldua as
she herself says in the essay “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”.
It is in this essay that the author talks about how she had faced oppression on the
basis of language in her schools. This is evidenced in the way she says he and her Mexican
students were asked to speak English without any accent as Mexican- English was not
approved in the class. As stated by Huebner (33), the author has also been classified as a
traitor by the Latin American people as being a traitor as she spoke English which was
considered to be an oppressor’s language since the Latin American people were asked to
speak in English in the country.
The author expresses her anger and disappointment at this form of oppression on her
and the rest of the Latin American. She stated that she spoke the type of language based on
the language of the people she was speaking to. The author has also emphasized upon the
facts that the Chicano-Americans have developed their own language which is a mixture of
both English and Spanish (Aguilar, 200). The author is of the opinion that the continued
oppression by the Americans for their language is the reason that have led the Latin
Americans to develop their own language for communication.
In the similar manner, the authors Henri Louis Gates as well as Judith Ortiz Cofer
have also expressed many evidences that indicates that they have also encountered oppression
in various instances in their lives. In the case of author Henri Louis Gates, as that readers find
in the essay “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man”, the readers find that the author has
stated in extensive details the kind of oppressions that the black men in America used to face.
They were accused either to be criminals or drug dealers or other nefarious types. As stated
by Armenta (325), he had given the example of O.J. Simpson or the fact that the fashion

3MULTIPLE TYPES OF OPPRESSION FACED BY INDIVIDUALS
designers never designed clothes for the black women because of the belief that the black
women were not fit enough to wear clothes designed by them.
He also cites an example from his life by the evidence of getting arrested at the age of
eighteen by the mayor of West Virginia who knew him. From all the examples, the author has
given, it can be stated that the type of oppression that the author had faced belongs to
oppression by racism as they have been oppresses on the colour of their skin.
When the readers analyse the condition of oppression faced by author Judith Ortiz
Cofer, they find that the author has also given vivid descriptions of the of the types of
oppressions that she had faced during her travels. She had been the victim of being
stereotyped as “Maria” because of her Latin look. Apart from this, she had also come across
other forms of oppression in her life which is similar to the oppressions faced by the author
Gloria Anzaldua in her life due to the fact of being Latin American (Aguilar, 225).
All these examples from the author’s lives gives the readers the examples that
oppressions have targeted them in some form or the other which have made them claim being
the victims of being oppressed by the members of the society.
From the above examples given by the author, it can be stated that each of the author
had been the subject of transactional oppression as well as microaggression in their lives. To
understand how microaggression had played a role in their lives, it is important to analyse the
condition of the author’s one by one. First lets analyse the condition of oppression faced by
Gloria Anzaldua. The readers find that the author had been the victim of oppression because
of her language and nationality (Mattson, 15).
This is because it is a common known fact that the American people do not like Latins
or people from the other countries. This is evidenced in the way that they the teachers forced
the author and her Latin friends to undergo speech training. This fact tells the readers about

4MULTIPLE TYPES OF OPPRESSION FACED BY INDIVIDUALS
the racist mentality of the Americans and how they want to turn the foreigners that come to
the country into being like them.
That is exactly what had happened with the author in her school and which ultimately
caused her to being accused as a traitor from herb own people. That is why it is said that the
author had been the victim of microaggression in the form of language (Aguilar, 300). She
had been forced to learn English because she knew she would not be liked enough to do any
business with by the Americans if she did not learn their language.
Similarly, it is known to all that the authors Henri Lois Gates as well as Judith Ortiz
Cofer had faced oppression base on racism (Aguilar, 210). In the instance if Gates, he tells
the readers in his essay how he was arrested by the mayor of the West Virginia County for
the simple reason of being a black man.
From the author’s statement, it is clear that the blacks in America used to, and still
does suffer from oppression of various kinds just like the Latin Americans as well as the
Mexicans.
This is because black people are seen as being inferior to that of the White people of
America. One of the main reasons for this is the history of America where the black people
used to be treated as slaves. This feeling of looking down on the blacks in America have
existed since that time (Armenta, 206).
It is this feeling that makes the black people of America being looked down even to
this day. The author has also emphasized on how black people are being punished as
criminals or drug peddlers even if they are innocent.
Therefore, from all these statements of the author, the readers get the idea that
microaggression had also played an important role in the life of the author in the form of

5MULTIPLE TYPES OF OPPRESSION FACED BY INDIVIDUALS
racism. It is this racism which have forced the author to express his distaste against the
American culture and its inferior treatment of the black peoples of the country.
The case of Judith Ortiz Cofer is kind of similar to the oppressions suffered at the
hands of the Americans by the author Gloria Anzaldua (Kiehne, 205). The author how some
individual addressed her as “Maria” because of her being a Latin woman. It is these
stereotype that the author has protested in the essay that she wrote. This is another form of
microaggression that the author talked about in the essay.
There are certain stereotypes that are labelled on people from other countries whom
the Americans feel are inferior to them. This is evidenced by the fact Latin American woman
are being referred to as “Maria”.
This not only becomes a form of oppression but also a form of racism which proves
the fact of how inferior treatment the Americans metes out to the Latins, Africans or Asian
people in the country (Huebner, 33). The author like the other two authors had protested
against stereotyped in this manner in the country.
When comparing the various factors of microaggression against the authors, it can be
found that there are certain common factors that forms the reasons for microaggression
against the authors themselves. These are the factors racism, language and stereotypes.
As stated by Armenta (131), these are the grounds on which the Americans consider
themselves to be superior to people from other countries and that is the exact reason for them
mistreating the people whom they consider to be inferior to them. For e.g. – since the blacks
in America were once treated as slaves, the notion still remains that they are inferior to the
superior white skinned Americans.

6MULTIPLE TYPES OF OPPRESSION FACED BY INDIVIDUALS
Similarly, the Latin American people are considered to be different from that of the
North Americans because of their different cultures and lifestyles which makes the American
people dislike the Latin Americans.
It is because of all these reasons that the authors themselves are considered to be the
victims intersectional oppression as well as the microaggression from the people of America
(Young, 348).
From the above discussions, it can be concluded that the authors individually have
presented an important part of the instances of oppression that they have faced in their lives.
The analysis of each of the authors and their experiences gives the readers an idea about the
kind of oppression that is faced by the foreign people in the country of America. Thus, it can
be said that the authors have indeed attracted the reader’s attention with examples of the
oppression that were faced by them in the country of America.

7MULTIPLE TYPES OF OPPRESSION FACED BY INDIVIDUALS
Reference List
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and African American men." The Vermont Connection 35.1 (2014): 2.
Armenta, Brian E., et al. "Where are you from? A validation of the Foreigner Objectification
Scale and the psychological correlates of foreigner objectification among Asian
Americans and Latinos." Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology 19.2
(2013): 131.
Huebner, David M., et al. "Social oppression, psychological vulnerability, and unprotected
intercourse among young Black men who have sex with men." Health Psychology
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Kiehne, Elizabeth. "Latino critical perspective in social work." Social work 61.2 (2016): 119-
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Kurtz-Costes, Beth, Akilah D. Swinton, and Olivenne D. Skinner. "Racial and ethnic gaps in
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handbook of multicultural psychology 1 (2014): 231-246.

8MULTIPLE TYPES OF OPPRESSION FACED BY INDIVIDUALS
Mattsson, Tina. "Intersectionality as a useful tool: Anti-oppressive social work and critical
reflection." Affilia 29.1 (2014): 8-17.
Sue, Derald Wing. "Therapeutic harm and cultural oppression." The Counseling Psychologist
43.3 (2015): 359-369.
Young, Iris Marion. "Five faces of oppression." The community development reader.
Routledge, 2013. 346-355.