the cost of being oppressed

Just today, in a locked discussion on my friend's list i had to refer to a post i made earlier about the relationship between PTSD and oppression. Then, today, alobar linked to this piece about how allusion to an oppression-linked stereotype, even by use of subtle language, can seriously impact one's performance:

Controlling what you eat, how often you study or whether you engage in addictive or criminal behaviour might be harder if you belong to a group targeted by negative stereotypes or prejudice, according to a University of Toronto study, published in the March issue of Psychological Science, which has begun to explore this research area.

Through three related experiments funded by the American Psychological Foundation, researchers from the University of Toronto and New York University (NYU) found that the psychological pressures experienced by people who belong to racially or socially stigmatized groups interfere with their ability to exhibit self-control when entering a threatening environment or after being made aware of their stigmatized status.

"Our study views self-control as a centrally important yet limited resource that underlies many behaviours," says Michael Inzlicht, assistant professor in U of T's Department of Psychology. "It's like a muscle in that you can exercise it to achieve your goals, but each time you do, you deplete the amount of self-control available to you. Eventually, you reach your limit and need to rest to avoid a lapse of control. For people exposed to stereotypes or prejudice, the anxiety and stress they feel in those situations increases the demands on their self-control, making it harder to keep overall goals in mind and to act appropriately."

What this means is, energy you spend dealing with the fact of being oppressed is energy you can't spend on other kinds of self-improvement -- like academic or job performance. It is a hidden cost of being oppressed -- one which gives benefit to those with privilege by allowing them to perform at a higher level.

In the past i've written about our society as a cannibalistic society, in which those who are oppressed are slowly being consumed by those with privilege in a somewhat "sublimated" way. And here we have a demonstration of this: the drag on your energy and attention which is caused simply by thinking about and dealing with the ways you've been mistreated and oppressed. This drag on those who are oppressed turns into profit for the privileged in the form of higher wages and increased prestige.

And the defenders of privilege turn this around against activists and claim that activists are creating a "culture of victimization" where they "wallow in victimhood" simply for the crime of trying to understand their oppression.