September 12, 2014 - 16:58
There is an idea of the “mindset of the oppressed.” This notion explains why peoples who have been oppressed have become “comfortable” submitting to a greater force or group and the duties that accompany that capitulation. Persecutors weaken, marginalize, dehumanize, and devalue groups of people in order to instill the oppressive mindset onto a society to the point where it becomes lodged into the prevailing cultural outlook and therefore in people’s minds. This is particularly relevant when their persecutors change or a culture becomes autonomous.
Last fall, during the time I spent in Bolivia, I took a tour of Potosí’s silver mine. Since 1545, the Spanish forced Bolivians into the mines, to mainly extract silver from the mountains above the city of Potosí.
Upon entering the mine, a bitter, overwhelming acid taste filled the back of my throat. The chemical I felt invading my throat was silica. Silica dust, arsenic gas, and acetylene vapors are some of the hazards miners endure. Despite my attempts to cough and spit, the acidic taste remained. Silicosis, the disease caused by inhaling silica dust, is one of the most prevalent causes of deaths in the mines. Some of the horrifying symptoms are coughing, spitting up blood, and weight loss.
As dust and grime caked on my face, I learned that most of the workers in the mine do not eat while they are in the mines because when they have, they have gotten diarrhea from the chemicals and dust in their food. Miners lose their teeth because of lack of nutrition. I felt the chemicals seeping through my skin. I was disturbed and speechless.
I cannot imagine going to work everyday, wondering whether I would break a leg, get sick, or potentially die. Even if I survived, I would feel like I was wasting my life. What is it like to live in fear? The miners are trapped. Every inch of their body, mind, and heart is telling them that the mines will destroy them, but they must go.
How much can we become accustomed to because of necessity? According to Carl Ratner in The Psychology of Oppression, oppressed people can become compliant with their oppressors’ demands:
Victims of oppression are unwittingly complicit in their own oppression. Psychology of oppression consists of motivation, agency, perception, emotions, ambitions, ideals, reasoning, memory, aesthetics, and morals that accept the oppressive social system, desire it, identify with it, take it for granted as normal and even as ideal, take pleasure in it, defend it, and reject alternatives to it. This is only possible because consciousness/psychology has been mystified and manipulated to not perceive, understand, or resist the oppressive society and the oppressive social basis, characteristics, and function of psychological phenomena (Ratner 5).
Some people I met in Bolivia believe in muscle memory. Their bodies are shaped, conformed, distorted to be able to work for their oppressors- blast apart mountainsides and sometimes disastrously themselves, shovel ore, and load parts of the mountainside to be processed for silver and other precious minerals. Their bodies have been “colonized,” an ingrained, muscle memory of how people must move to most effectively complete the tasks that have been forcefully required of them.
Not only land, but also people’s bodies have been colonized, controlled, abused. It is easy to come to the simple conclusion that if the conditions are so treacherous in the mines, why do people continue to seek jobs in this field? This is a privileged perspective, one that assumes they have a choice, an escape, and other options. This view does not consider that people have become accustomed to certain lifestyles, even if they are unjust. They are convinced to accept their persecutor’s language, customs, and identity. Sometimes oppression is difficult to identify because it has become so deeply implanted into a people’s daily routine, customs, lifestyle jobs, and even family units.
"Bloodchild," by Octavia E Butler, takes place in an utopian world where humans are used as vessels to carry the offspring of the Tlic. Though several characters in the novel understand the pain, brutality, and suffering that is involved in their submission to the Tlics, they continue to eat eggs that help them release their inhibitions, forget about their problems, be more emotionally available, relax, and sleep. They maintain these practices because that is what their mothers, brothers, and sisters do and because of a fear of what will happen to them if they do not comply. For the most part, they do not question their mistreatment.
People commit terrible acts because they do not think they have a choice in the matter or because they are brutally forced into accepting realities. Oppression tarnishes people’s capacities to effectively interpret situations, have a sense of reason, and be fully aware of people’s motives (Ratner 6). As I was crawling through the mine, I wondered whether or not the miners feel satisfied at the end of the day. Most likely they will never hear a “thank you” for fueling Bolivia’s economy and putting their lives on the line. I thought about showing my gratitude for their perseverance and fortitude, but my words were swallowed as I looked up at the abused mountain that had become a series of cuts and slashes. I did not fully understand the destruction of a mountain until I saw roads dissecting rock faces. The mountain was weak. The miners who tore up the mountain were just trying to feed their families. How do the workers feel when they drive by that site? How could they explain the missing pieces?
There is a strange interdependency that underlies the relationships between the miners and those who own the mines, and T’Gatoi, a Tlic and Gan, the main character, a Terran. In the case of the miners, they are dependent upon the companies that contract them, yet these companies are dependent upon the materials the miners collect to earn profit. Gan is vulnerable to T’Gatoi’s power because he is a guest on the Tlic planet. T’Gatoi, the government official of the Tlics is dependent on humans, including Gan, to continue the production of her species. Gan was picked by T'Gatoi to take on the burden of carrying her eggs. This creates a twisted, interweaving of relationships that are mostly determined by outside forces rather than their own choosing.
The characters in “Bloodchild” feel vulnerable and incapacitated to the whims, concerns, and interests of the Tlics. Lien, the mother of Gan in this story is obedient and respectful of T’Gatoi. Lien has seen the different ways in which the Tlics demonstrate power and she does not feel any reason to fight them. She is disenfranchised. How much are we willing or capable of sacrificing?
One then wonders where to place blame. In the face of such devastating realities, one questions, whose fault it is? Why are people forced into these situations? Though, in some ways the oppressed groups uphold the systems that effectively harm the majority of the people by willingly cooperating, can we condemn them in any way? Do they have a choice? One cannot accuse the workers or the Terrans of any crime when they do not have any opportunities. How does one go about destroying these structures? They are trapped victims inside the systems that others dominate.
Works Cited
"The Psychology of Oppression." The Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology. ed. 2013. Sonic. Web. 12 Sept. 2014.