As a warning, Pedagogy of the Oppressed is a deeply theoretical text, and at that it is a leftist text, that contains many run on and long winded paragraphs for sentences. I recommend the read to anyone who can bear it. It is a 180 pages of though provoking statements. Below are my thoughts on the text as I read through it…

To start, what is a Pedagogy? As defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a Pedagogy “the art, science, or profession of teaching”. In the case of this book, it is the art of teaching oppression. Immediately, you might think, who teaches oppression?

“Who are better prepared than the oppressed, to understand the terrible significance of an oppressed society? Who suffer the effects of oppression more than the oppressed? Who can better understand the necessity of liberation?

The answer is the oppressed. Who is better prepared to oppress someone, that an oppressor? The oppressed. They already know all of the methods to exploit someone. Here for example, I think of the Stanford Prison Experiment. When the roles reverse, and the prisoners then become the guards, they forget as though they were never oppressed before. They have switched sides now, and play their role as the oppressor, to prevent becoming the oppressed reinforcing the standard.

Who suffer the effects of oppression more than the oppressed? The Oppressor. This is because the oppressors maintain the status quo. The easiest example of this, could be again the Stanford Prison Experiment again. They have no insurance gauranting that they will receive any measure of safety when the roles reverse again. So the easiest way to maintain safety, is to continue oppression, in hope to break down their oppressors in to a useless state.

Who can better understand the necessity of liberation? The oppressed. They relate to any oppression, due to the nature of the oppressor. They can understand the need for liberation among the oppressed immediately. This is why many oppressed groups often team together in resolving group problems. But how do you break this cyclical chain of oppression? It is simply to not oppress.

In a simple interview with a great deal of political activists, it is a common theme amongst them all, that at one point or another, the reason that they have become organizers is due to the simple feeling of hopelessness. What many activists hope to do is flip the script, and to then liberate the oppressed. But the means that they do so, is what matters to the author here. It is important, to not just become the new oppressor.

With that goal in mind, you may think now, what is oppression? Simply put, Oppression = The dehumanization of individuals. So why do so many liberators of the oppressed, eventually become their new oppressors? This is because often, the oppressed discover that without freedom, they cannot exist authentically. Although, this statement is only true in the fact that there are always oppressed. For without the oppressed, there are no oppressors.

Combating Oppression

Now that we have a good grasp on the definition of oppression as defined in the text, you may wonder how can we combat oppression? One might immediately move to violence. While I don’t justify violence in its self, I would like to note that the author him self states “Never Once has violence been started by the oppressed” For the nature of oppression is violent.

Immediately what comes to mind for me is the difference in tactics between Martin Luther King Jr, and Malcom X. Martin Luther King Jr. was repeated placed in the spotlight and commended for his peaceful approach by the oppressors, because he did not pose a threat to them. I would like you to remember though that, it was the CIA that killed Martin Luther King Jr. Along with that, when we take the example of Malcolm X., many argue that the violence incited by Malcom’s protests, was never once provoked, we must remember though, that at every step of the way that the oppressor provided violence, by failing to recognize others as persons, by exploiting individuals. In the media, Malcom X. was portrayed as a criminal, and hunted by the oppressors for mimicking their oppressive tactics. In this case, I would like to remind you as well, that Nelson Mandela even did not believe that he could prevent the oppression the apartheid provided without violence, and did some twenty years in prison for the thought alone.

The book though mentions that the way to combat oppression, mostly involves the way that we teach individuals. Education in itself is a form of oppression. For example, every high school teaches why the Vietnam war was unwinnable, but never once do they mention why they were unpopular with minorities and leftists. Schools are advertised as a liberal institutions, but in reality schools are some of the most conservative institutions designed ever. Schools are designed to enforce the status quo. Your deadlines, writing limits, grade requirements, etc. are designed to indoctrinate you into society.

So how do we combat the indoctrination of education, and defeat the oppression of society? By challenging the way that you teach. Simply put, the only way to combat oppression is to develop critical consciousness within the oppressed. Making the oppressed aware of the power woven within their means. Critical consciousness forces you to question the status quo assigned to you by your oppressors. Often, what causes critical consciousness is what the author refers to as a limiting situation. A situation in which you begin to understand that the thoughts that were indoctrinated into you via your oppressors are no longer yours.

Once you have identified the ways you have been oppressed, to prevent then becoming a oppressor, you should practice co-intentional education, where both the instructor and student are both objects within the dialogue that are spoke and thought of critically. Why do you feel the way you do? What makes you believe that is true? dialogue and challenge the subject at hand, and eventually you will find the answer to your oppression.

Food for thought

• What ways are you an oppressor?
• What ways are you oppressed?
• If your are an oppressor, how can you become an agent of change?
• If you are oppressed, in what ways are you oppressed? Why?