Internalized Prejudices and Oppression
- Alice Sar
- Sep 5, 2020
- 2 min read
Updated: Apr 11, 2021
How are we oppressing ourselves?
Envision that you’re five, just starting school and learning how to form your own opinions. You’re watching a show, and a girl wearing a crop top and a short skirt pops up on screen. Your guardian, who is watching with you, makes a disgusted face. “Why would she dress like that? She should cover up more,” you hear them say. You don’t understand why they said this about the girl, but because you see them as an authority figure who knows better, you internalize this particular incident. As other adults share this same reaction to similar incidents like this, you now believe that a girl who wears provocative clothing is deemed as bad. This is internalized misogyny. To be frank, it’s misogyny against a woman, perpetrated by a woman. It’s a byproduct of the patriarchy, and we all suffer from it. This isn’t the only form of internalized oppression out there. Several others include internalized homophobia, racism, colorism, transphobia, ableism, and more.
So, what exactly is internalized oppression? What does it mean if you have internalized homophobia? What does it mean if you have internalized racism? Well, internalized oppression is when someone from a group discriminates against another person from the same group, or even themselves. Especially in many minority groups, internalized prejudices is something that they struggle with when trying to accept themselves. For example, a bisexual man can have internalized homophobia towards himself. He might undermine his own feelings and deny his own identity because it’s always been perceived as bad within his community growing up. Other forms of internalized oppression could be a young Asian person who makes fun of their grandparent’s accents, or someone with autism refusing to talk to other disabled kids because they want to believe they are “normal.” These behaviors circulate widely, and societal standards of normalcy are to blame. However, it is not someone who is the prime holder of internalized prejudice’s fault.
Internalized oppression is a worldwide experience passed on from generation to generation. However, it only enables us to move backwards from progress. So, how do we undo the internalized prejudice that we’ve carried since our childhood? We have all been hurt and this is one part of that trauma. The next step is to heal, to learn, and to grow from our internalized oppression through education, rebuilding, research, and a lot of self-reflection. Healing starts when you recognize these unconscious biases. You know that you carry a lot of internalized oppression, so what do you do about it? Everyone’s journey is different and healing is not an easy path, but it is important to talk to people. Talk to people who’ve had similar experiences, talk with your friends, reach out to people you might not even know. Do research into your culture, your history, and more. Take pride in it, as difficult as that may be. This is your own journey, and it’ll be a rollercoaster of progress and setbacks, but you have the strength in you to heal. Ultimately, let yourself be you, and be proud of you.
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