Oppression, Resistance and Revolution - Friday

[hisownagenda.livejournal.com]

When the students entered into class this week they would find their teacher sitting serenely behind his desk. Behind him on the blackboard was written a single word in large block letters.

“OPPRESSION”

“Last week we had discussed various causes you felt strong enough to die for,” Eric began as the students took their seats. “As in many cases all of these causes have a singular root.”

A classroom pointer floated up in the air and then with a loud THWACK hit the blackboard right underneath the aforementioned word.

“There are several sorts of oppression,” Eric continued as he stood up and began to walk around the room. “Cultural. Institutionalized. Systematic. Cultural oppression typically occurs through socially supported mistreatment and exploitation of a group or category of people by another group or category of people. Institutional oppression occurs when established laws, customs, and practices systematically reflect and produce inequities based on one’s membership in targeted social identity groups. And finally there is systematic oppression. Here the term oppression refer to the subordination of a given group or social category by unjust use of force, authority, or societal norms in order to achieve their desired effects.”

Erik paused to let out a dramatic sigh as he turned and faced his students.

“Human history is wrought with such examples. I’m sure those of you from other galaxies and dimensions can provide even more,” he continued. “Today’s assignment is a short essay of no more than 100 words giving an example of such oppression. You will then share them with the rest of the class.”

He paused again... Mostly for dramatic effect.

“Begin.”

Comments

Sign-In

[hisownagenda.livejournal.com]

Like you're being oppressed... with homework!

Re: Sign-In

[whitequeensfire.livejournal.com]

Angelica Jones

Re: Sign-In

[selfhelphero]

Billy Kaplan

Lecture/Work on Your Essay

[hisownagenda.livejournal.com]

No spitballs Loki.

Re: Lecture/Work on Your Essay

[selfhelphero]

Billy chewed on the end of his pen as he tried to cut his thoughts down to 100 words. It had turned out to be harder than he'd expected, once he'd started writing.

Re: Lecture/Work on Your Essay

[genesishero]

Evan didn't so much as hesitate before diving right into his essay. Essays were one of those things that he was actually really good at, though keeping it to less than a hundred words would be a challenge.

In the end, not certain how many other mutants there were in the class or how many had made it as far along in their world's timeline as he was, he decided to just err on the side of caution and keep it short by not referring to specifics.

Re: Lecture/Work on Your Essay

[failsatspirit]

Korra rolled her eyes at the antics with the pointer. Dramabender.

Re: Lecture/Work on Your Essay

[glacial_queen]

Karla couldn't wait to put her thoughts down in the form of an essay. Like so many others, however, keeping it to one hundred words would be the difficult part. In the end, she just wrote everything she felt like, then went back over it and crossed out everything that could be classified as a 'rant.'

After that, a bit of editing, a little tweaking and she'd clocked in at...well, still over a hundred, but closer.

Present your Essay

[hisownagenda.livejournal.com]

Which doesn't even have to be even near 100 words. And then you get to be judged by Magneto! What fun!

Re: Present your Essay

[whitequeensfire.livejournal.com]

It wasn't difficult for Angelica to find a personal example of being persecuted for being a mutant. She still wasn't sure just how much of that Emma had set up, though, but it still worked.

"I'm a mutant," she read when her turn came. "And in my world we're persecuted just for being born the way we are, even if we're not hurting anyone. One time when I accidentally used my powers in public, a whole bunch of people attacked me and my dad. They called me names and called my dad a mutie lover. One of them had a gun that he said he was carrying around just in case he ran into a mutant, and he tried to kill me. And nobody tried to stop them. They just let it happen or worse, they joined in. And it's like that for everybody like me in my world. It's just not fair, and it doesn't make sense."

She thought she'd gone over the world limit, but she hoped she wouldn't get in trouble for that.

Re: Present your Essay

[hisownagenda.livejournal.com]

"A very eloquent and troubling example of the problems we face in the world today," Magneto said in a praising way. "Almost all mutants have a story such as this where prejudicial fears lead to senseless retribution. Well done, Miss Jones."

Re: Present your Essay

[genesishero]

In the end, Evan had decided to go with an essay that touched on much the same thing that Angelica's did. Nothing... quite so personal, granted. He'd never been singled out as a mutant, though he'd been singled out among mutants.

"Humans hate and fear what it is they don't understand," he began, squaring his shoulders. "During my time at the last school I went to, we had classes that covered very specific parts of mutant history, and even some projected futures for mutantkind. Most of those futures and that history were pretty bleak. There have been more things created by humankind in an attempt to exterminate or undermine mutants as people than there have been attempts to help us thrive, from sentinels to registration acts to fanatic cults. And, of course, to attacks on schools full of children whose only supposed crime is being genetically different. It needs to stop."

Something like a hundred and five words, by Evan's count. Hopefully, that was okay.

Re: Present your Essay

[hisownagenda.livejournal.com]

A little wordy but Magneto wasn't going to chastise anyone going a bit over.

"Again a very good example," Magneto praised. "Showing several examples of oppression over a certain minority both from a cultural and political aspect. Well done, Evan. Tell me... how do you think you think the best method might be to resolve these issues?"

Re: Present your Essay

[upmysleeve.livejournal.com]

Ace had already mentioned petrol and letterboxes once, and it took pushing for that one; she wasn't bringing it up again. Definitely not her own experiences with it. Instead she went with something a lot more recent.

"Those of us who were here a month ago all know about systematic oppression. The old witch--" That wasn't Ace toning down her language for the classroom. Please. "--who took over the school made a bunch of rules about things she didn't like and people she didn't like, and if you didn't play along, she had you tortured or locked up or killed."

Re: Present your Essay

[hisownagenda.livejournal.com]

"Interesting," Magneto said after listening to Ace's essay. "And how did you personally respond to such oppression?"

Re: Present your Essay

[ultron_junior]

There weren't any great examples of anti-robot oppression that Victor felt like sharing with the class, so he went for the other side of his heritage.

"I'm Mexican-American," he began. "My mom came here legally, but some immigrant families didn't. The kids in those families can be deported, even if they were like a month old when they came over and don't know anything about the country their parents were from or speak the language at all. Even if they aren't deported, there are a ton of things they can't do because they aren't legal residents. Like, you can't enlist in the military, you can't get a real job, you can't get a student loan. I understand why there's immigration law, but punishing kids for choices their parents made is rotten. It's oppression based on which side of an imaginary line called a border you were born on."

Re: Present your Essay

[hisownagenda.livejournal.com]

"Excellent examples of how simple government rules can restrict the rights of others," Magneto said with a nod. "And how certain privileges can be taken away just because of how you were born. And what ways have you tried to change these issues? Or have you?"

Re: Present your Essay

[harpy-daughter.livejournal.com]

"You always have the Haves and the Have-Nots," Surreal said simply. "Blood will rule the landens. Darker Blood over lighter, aristos over commoners. Queens to rule, Widows, Priestesses, Healers... Sometimes you'll have the tension of a lighter-Blood aristo who outranks a darker commoner, but Protocol - supposedly - will keep Blood in check if used properly."

"Any attempt to change that status quo results in bodies left on the killing field, and it's always the landens that die."

Re: Present your Essay

[hisownagenda.livejournal.com]

Magneto pondered his reply for a few moments. "Not knowing your society, I'm assuming that this would be persecution of the landens as a result of class warfare of sorts?"

Re: Present your Essay

[failsatspirit]

"Councillor Tarrlok forcing through laws restricting the movements of non-benders in Republic City and arresting them en masse simply because some of them might be Equalists provides an instance of institutionalised repression," Korra read out. "Also, the Equalists attacking benders for being benders is an example of systematic oppression. Both were wrong by the way."

Hardly eloquent, but competent enough considering the White Lotuc had never bothered to teach her anything about politics.

Re: Present your Essay

[monkeymonkeydie.livejournal.com]

Bucky stood on top of his desk angrily.

"I don't NEED a hundred words to talk about oppression! I only need one."

He paused for emphasis, and when he said the word it was full of seething resentment: "Pet."

Talk to the TA

[hisownagenda.livejournal.com]

If he's here...

Re: Talk to the TA

[selfhelphero]

If there was one class Billy would never skip, it would be this one. He was here, in case anyone wanted to talk to him.

Talk to Magneto

[hisownagenda.livejournal.com]

Because he's such a cheerful fellow!

OOC

[hisownagenda.livejournal.com]

La!