Unfortunately, today, in the XXI century, many people in the United States and the world are still on the brink of oppression. A lot of people still become oppressed on the basis of their race, gender, class, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, or ethnicity. Luckily, more and more people are becoming more enlightened about this issue and want it to change. However, there are many people who do not really care about the systematic oppression of the less protected groups. This ignoring of the problem can be manifested in various forms. For example, people may just not notice and distract themselves from it. They may even deny the problem and say that this problem is artificially inflated or does not exist at all. This type of reaction can only lead to misunderstanding, if not outright anger, among those who devote time to researching the oppression problem. Moreover, the problem of ignoring is one of the main obstacles in the way to solving it. If people devoted more attention and would not focus only on their personal problems, then our society would be much safer and more comfortable for everybody.
There are various reasons why people want to diminish the problem of oppression and there are different arguments they use to justify the status quo. One of the reasons for it is that people believe this problem concerns only the oppressed ones and they have nothing to do with it. Peggy McIntosh in her article White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack says that “white students in the U.S. think that racism doesn’t affect them because they are not people of color”. In her opinion, privilege is an invisible knapsack; privileged people do not want to understand that they are part of the racist system, because they have inherent advantages, due to their skin color, gender, etc. Cody J. Sanders agrees with her point of view and shows that it is a great problem. In his article Oppression, Injustice, and Violence: Let’s Stop Changing the Subject, he says “that we want to believe that oppression is an “evil” that happens to Others elsewhere”. Therefore, people have invisible privileges and think they are not part of the problem.
From a privileged vantage point, the thought that some groups of people may actually be oppressed is unpleasant and shameful. People like to perceive their successes and their achievements and faults as the result of circumstances, but with others, it works and vice versa. Cody J. Sanders writes that victim-blaming is a means for privileged groups to save the status quo by shifting the blame on the oppressed. He cites as an example the murder of Trayvon Martin and says that, when he was killed, many tried to change the focus from a fact that a human was murdered to his personality. When people wrote that he wore a hoodie or was suspended from school instead, they made others think that Trayvon Martin was himself responsible for his death. Peggy McIntosh writes that people should abandon the myth of meritocracy, in order to stop putting pressure on oppressed groups. The position of victim-blaming is morally wrong and should not exist in people’s perception of reality.
Privileged groups can also be dissatisfied with the existing environment. They have their own problems and they do not want to hear about others’ problems. That is why privileged groups diminish the position of the oppressed by stating that, in fact, they are in the oppressed group too. The arguments of this position allow these people to ignore the real state of affairs and deny the whole theory of privileges. They unwind the problem, because if everyone is oppressed, then no one is actually oppressed. According to Peggy McIntosh, whites and males do not recognize they have privileges. This reasoning removes the distinction between groups that do not have privileges from birth (based on race, gender, or sexual orientation) and groups that do. Cody. J Sanders writes that “the erosion of unearned privilege may very well feel like a diminishment of one’s «rights» and provides an example of the rhetoric of some Christian groups. These groups say they are oppressed by the fact that gays may have rights or that Muslims do not pray to Jesus. However, they are wrong because they confuse unearned privileges with rights.
To conclude, the reasons why people choose to diminish the problem are different. Some do not like this idea, because they care only about their own problems. Others try to justify the status quo by blaming victims instead of those who hurt them. Some people try to present themselves as the oppressed, even if they have enough privileges. The reasons for this may be different, but the only conclusion that can be made is that the situation when privileged groups deny they have privileges and ignore the problems of oppressed groups is unacceptable. People need to be educated and made aware that they are in a more privileged position and that it is wrong and this is the only way it can change, eventually.