Systems of Oppression: Principles, Power, and Slavery in Mauritania

Introduction to Oppression

Oppression is a systematic way of treating human beings in dehumanizing ways by subjecting them to suffering and the deprivation of basic amenities that would otherwise allow them to lead a bearable and comfortable life. It may involve denying access to education, language, and healthcare. Oppression is orchestrated through government systems such as the police, the military, laws, customs, and other practices that produce inequality in the distribution of resources in society. Oppressive systems target specific groups defined by their social identities (Young, 2004).

Core Principles of Systems of Oppression

Robinson (2010) points out that certain habits and cultural practices perpetuate the oppression of individuals and groups. Although oppression occurs in varying forms, these systems share similar characteristics and principles.

Power: The dominant group exercises authority over subjects through exploitation. The party on the receiving end typically has no capacity to resist or ward off such oppression (Robinson, 2010).

Abuse patterns: Oppressive systems are constituted by a series of abusive acts designed to establish dominance. Racism, for instance, is not the product of a single incident. Rather, it has been shaped by a history of discriminatory laws, biased labor practices, and lynching (Robinson, 2010).

Social justification: The dominant group justifies oppressive acts as a means of maintaining proper social order (Robinson, 2010).

Secrecy: The actual abuse is often concealed from the public (Robinson, 2010).

Internal distress: The tensions that arise between the oppressor and the oppressed are, ideally, underlying conflicts within the oppressor that are displaced and vented outward onto the oppressed.

Legitimizing oppression as a social product: Societal institutions proclaim the superiority of the oppressor. History, natural law, science, and appeals to divine will are frequently employed by oppressive individuals and groups to emphasize their superiority and to diminish the identity of the oppressed (Young, 2004).

Self-fulfilling prophecies: Myths that propagate oppression and are used to legitimize oppressive acts are commonly products of self-fulfilling prophecy (Young, 2004).

Skewed relationships between the oppressed and the oppressor: Submission and obedience are common elements observed among the oppressed when interacting with oppressors. The oppressor typically demands what is unreasonable, and the oppressed complies out of fear and inferior power—not because they agree with the demands (Young, 2004).

Marginalization: Marginalization involves restricting or relegating a social group to inferior status, declaring that members of the group are unfit for certain functions while remaining available for others, including menial labor. These are groups that have been excluded from productive participation in social life and exposed to serious deprivation. They may even face extermination because of their race, age, gender, or other arbitrary characteristics (Young, 2004).

Exploitation: One social group labors while another reaps the proceeds of that labor. These oppressive acts are systematically and repeatedly reproduced through oppressive systems. Within such systems, those who have less spend their energies without interruption simply to augment and maintain the wealth and status of those who have more (Young, 2004).

Oppression in Practice: Mauritania's Institutionalized Slavery

Mauritania is described by journalist Elinor Burkett as the only country in the world where institutionalized oppression remains widespread. The ruling Arab tribes are served by enslaved Black Africans who receive no remuneration or compensation of any kind. There is no access to education, no wages, and no planning for the future available to the oppressed group. Enslaved persons must even seek permission to marry. The power and abuse patterns that define oppressive systems are clearly visible here, as is the social production of meaning in the maintenance of oppressive structures in Mauritania (Conway-Smith, 2015).

Burkett demonstrates in her article that although the oppressed in Mauritania are Black Africans, many regard themselves as part of their master's tribe and clan. They live in a world that equates belonging with being. They have no separate identity in a society that demonizes individualism. Consequently, the relationship between the oppressor and the oppressed is severely distorted—a dynamic clearly illustrated in the relationship between Mauritanian slaves and their masters (Conway-Smith, 2015).

Although the slaves in Mauritania are not physically chained, they are long-standing psychological prisoners who are also utterly poor. Some regard their status of servitude as sacred and remain unaware of the social justifications that underpin and perpetuate their enslavement (Conway-Smith, 2015).

Some of the enslaved describe their position as part of a caste system. It is noted that slaves descend from dark-skinned ancestors who were subjected to slavery centuries ago by lighter-skinned masters, and it has since been construed as God's will that they remain enslaved (Conway-Smith, 2015). The Mauritanian government denies the severity of the problem. Indeed, people on both sides of the divide deny the existence of slavery—remarkably, even some of the enslaved themselves deny that slavery exists in Mauritania (Conway-Smith, 2015).

Conclusion

Systems of oppression represent an in-depth area of sociological inquiry into the social causes of suffering and inequality. This paper has applied a number of core concepts drawn from Robinson and Iris Marion Young to illuminate how oppression functions. However, most of these co-principles are inspired by Western thinking, which may lead us to assume that oppression operates uniformly across the globe. Unequal distribution of resources, informed by the treatment of socially distinct groups, constitutes social inequality—and it is largely associated with racial, ethnic, gender, and other forms of disparity. The framework of systems of oppression remains a useful tool for helping people understand social inequalities and the relational dynamics of social categories through which they are expressed.

References

Conway-Smith, E. (2015, October 19). 'Slaves by the will of God': Why Mauritania has the highest percentage of slaves in the world. Retrieved June 13, 2017, from https://www.pri.org/stories/2015-10-19/

Robinson, M. L. (2010, June 3). Systems of oppression. Retrieved June 13, 2017, from Creative Commons:

Young, I. (2004). Five faces of oppression. In L. Heldke & P. O'Connor (Eds.), Oppression, privilege, and resistance. McGraw Hill.