"The Five faces of Oppression" points out the different faces that oppress us. The first face is Exploitation which is the fact that people work but are not paid for the hard work they do just to survive. Then we have Marginalization which is the action of excluding minorities. Powerlessness is that people who have power use it on the one who don't. Culture silence the fact that oppress people ends of being silence. finally cultural imperialism which the fact that we adopt the dominant culture.
We can see that these student are exposed to the "Five faces of Oppression" especially powerlessness. Here, we say that the professor have power over the teacher and the teacher over the students. we see that the teacher has tried to stop a couple of time but the professor insisted telling him that the experiment suggested it. The professor was the ruler and he hold the decision. the students didn't have any power at all and was just obeying to the teacher. Students, because they were powerless, they end up being silence ( culture silence) even though they know the unethical of this experiment. We can also say that these students are in some way marginalized and Milgram explains that we often persuade ourselves that violence is something that is normal when we use it on other.
This is related to chapter 5 in the way that it explains the different points of how power affects us. These help us understand legitimate power which is the exceeded by those who invoke a feeling of obligation ( the students and in some way the teacher, cultural power and economic and political power.
I can relate to these because my country was colonized by France and were force to adopt a lot of french culture. They imposed us their language too. Now they are not there, we still speaking their language and it is our official language, we celebrate their holiday and act like. I myself speak french better than my mother tongue and we all close our eyes on it and are silence ( culture silence). we think that it is normal and it is a must to do exactly like how the french has imposed us. This is what the experiment and the article is trying to show us.
The Milgram Experiment was an eye opener, it showed the impact that people of power has and it was the perfect example of legitimate power. In essence, the students accepted the scientists due to the norm that scientists are good people. However, if the details in the experiment actually occurred,they could have be arrested for manslaughter, which could have been an unfortunate life changing moment for all who were involved.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, I know that adopting someone's elses languge and ways of living must have been a culture shock for the people of Liberia and your family. Especially because you had to adopt these new behaviors as a custom.However, the positive of the situation is that you are exposed to another person's way of living and their language.C'est genial.
Susan