Do people who have been oppressed in this country compete with each other in terms of who's had it worse?

Question

I hear a lot of bickering between people who have had it hard in the US, like "my people went through this, and your people didn't, and so on."

I feel this oppression is not so much a learned experience, but one that gives them free passes, and competition with each other as to whom has had it worse.

Am I the only one who see's this?

P.S. I'm gay in case anybody states I'm some white dude who doesn't experience hate.

I hear the first poster. Most times people don't even know history of not only their past, but, other historical event's as well.

Tigis is right.

I agree with plastik.

teejay - pretty sick.

Answer 1

Yes.

I love to hear people who were never slaves themselves, and whose parents and grandparents were never slaves, say that I enslaved them. That's a riot! LOL

Answer 2

we all experience hate and oppression on some level. so what! that's life. people can whine about it and feel sorry for themselves, or they can brush it off and chalk it up to ignorance on the part of the accuser. of course some cases are worse than others, but out right oppression hasn't gone on in this country in quite a few years. yeah people are always gonna be prejudice, but that's there problem.

Answer 3

Usually the case. First people like to detail their oppression, than another group will say they had it worse until they argue who has had it worse over the years. An odd competition

Answer 4

Good observation. I guess we all feel we're special, and someone in another group couldn't possibly know what our experiences are, and to a degree that's true. But it's not black and white.

It is competition of a sort, but it is also a way to exclude someone who doesn't fit your particular niche. An example I see often in gay media is the whole civil rights issue, and its comparison to the civil rights movement in the 1960's. Bigots of any stripe can say "You couldn't possibly know my bad experiences," when what they really mean is that since you're different from me, I don't care about your bad experiences.

Answer 5

I do think people sometimes lose sight of the sacrifices people from their group have made, and sometimes make their visit to the local grocery store a major incident.(rather than a personal disagreement)....

Now with that being said, each oppressed person has different experience within themselves. What may bother me as a person may not bother you. Basically some people have tougher skin than others. Because someone is not in the position (mentally) to handle what you can, it doesn't mean that their experience isn't as detrimental as they are expressing it to be.

Answer 6

Well I suppose some people need to experience hate to "see it". The debate of who's more oppressed is a bit ridiculous, but with that said.....

..... the Native American Indians, in my opinion are the most oppressed group of people in the history of America.

Whites "let" them survive on their desolate, resource less reservations...surviving only on federal grants and "corrupted" vices like gambling, booze and cheap cigarettes.....

How sick is that?

Answer 7

Yes, too many people want to be a victim.

The problem with that in the real world is, predators (of any description, from wolves to politicians) are always looking for the weakest member of the herd. If you act like a victim you are fated to be a victim.

Answer 8

YEs.

But I think our society has been programming people to be victims.

I'm a gay man, but I refuse to see myself as "oppressed." I am an individual, not part of some "community." Especially the GBLT "community." To me, that "community is dubious.

I guess if you think of yourself as a victim or as oppressed, then you are. I reject all that.

Love, Jack

PS:

NOTE TO TIGGIS: I don't see Indians as "totally screwed." They have found their niche in the casino industry. They also sell cheap cigarettes. I buy my cigs online from the Indians at about 3 bucks a pack - a steal considering they are almost $8 per pack in NJ.

Answer 9

hear hear, prejudice and ijustice is just that, prejudice and injustice, big or small.

i've asked questions comparing womens civil rights movements and black civil rights movements with the gay civil rights movements, only to be jumped on by people saying "your different, you haven't suffered anything the way we have" and "you can just hide it"

gay people face just as much discrimination as anyone else has had in terms of lack of rights, when was the last time black people were disallowed from marrying each other? when was the last time that women were called names in the street for being who they are?

and that's without going other the various things such as the Nazi's, sure they exterminated jewish people on a horrific scale, but they were also exterminating lesbians, gays, people with disabilities, anyone that didnt fit their bill of perfection, there's even a memorial to the gay victims of the holocaust.

as i've stated in my question's concerning Martin Luther King, inequality and injustice against one group, is equality and injustice against all, and it's all who need to stand up and try to prevent it, just as his wife has said "i think it's time we make room at the table for our LGBT brothers and sisters"

the problem is the prejudice, no person is any better or worse than any other, and until we can shed ourselves of the social stigmas that are ingrained into us from birth, there will always be conflict of this kind.

it shouldn't be a case of "we've suffered more than you, we deserve better"

it should be a case of "we -all- have suffered, now lets put a stop to it, and make a better world for all"

Answer 10

I see it as an excuse for people to not fully develop into responsible, mature adults. They blame others for their failures. It makes no difference to me who they are. People are responsible for who and what they become - prejudices, oppression or whatever shouldn't be an excuse.

Answer 11

Yes, people think that hardship is a sort of "rite of passage" so they will brag about it. All minorities grow up with a little more S**T to take than the majority.