Activists in Philly Have a Novel Approach to Help De-Oppress Society
September 20, 2024
by Damon OrionFacebookTwitterRedditEmail
In 2019, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America reported that one in 1,000 Black men in the U.S. are killed by police. Statista states that between 2015 and August 2024, Black U.S. residents were fatally shot by law enforcement officers at a rate of 6.2 per million of the population per year compared to 2.4 white Americans per million per year.
This is an all-too-familiar example of systemic oppression, which the diversity, equity, and inclusion-based software company Develop Diverse defines as “the mistreatment of a social, ethnic, or racial group, perpetuated by governments, schools, health care systems, and other socioeconomic structures.”
Systemic oppression can take many forms. For instance, according to the Forbes piece “Gender Pay Gap Statistics in 2024,” on average, women earn 16 percent less than men. The article also states that “[w]omen of color are among the lowest-paid workers in rural areas, with rural Black and Hispanic women making just 56 cents for every dollar that rural white, non-Hispanic men make.” Meanwhile, Native American women receive an average of 59 cents for every dollar paid to white males.
A worker-owned cooperative called the Anti-Oppression Resource and Training Alliance (AORTA) fights systemic oppression by helping individuals and organizations create equitable leadership models for all races, genders, and sexual orientations to enable them to achieve “social justice and a solidarity economy.” Established in 2010, this Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based team of facilitators offers strategy meetings, coaching, political education, and training on anti-oppression value systems.
More:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/09/20/activists-in-philly-have-a-novel-approach-to-help-de-oppress-society/