’m not one for New Year’s resolutions, but my goal for this year is to eliminate my own internalized oppressor. We all have an oppressor inside of us. It’s as much a part of our makeup as our hair and eye color. The problem is that most of us don’t even know what this internalized oppressor is. Or how it got inside of us in the first place.

Basically, the internalized oppressor is the voice inside all of us that tells us that we aren’t worth a crap. It’s a prevalent voice, especially because the current system builds this voice as part of the development process. Really, if a person derives from an English-speaking, middle to upper class, white background, he or she will more than likely be ok in this world. There will still be some form of the crappy voice, but they will see life as providing means to overcoming this voice.

But for those who are different from what the system seeks to develop, life is a war zone that begins and ends with that internalized oppressor. Those whose primary language other than English are basically screwed. Add in skin color and lower economic status, and that voice inside will scream, “you’re not worth a crap” and people will act in accordance with that message, automatically.

I’ve always been an outsider and I suspect that I always will be. But while it has always bothered me that I am an outsider, I have succeeded in spite of this. That is, I have been able to support myself and my family and although I’m not rich, I am also not in jail or dead. I am not what the system finds desirable, but

I am functioning and participating within a system that doesn’t care much that I do.
Therefore, I will remove the remnants of the voice inside of me that used to resent my outsider status. Rather, I will fully embrace my outsider status and in doing so, kill my internalize oppressor, once and for all. Then, I will begin to teach others to do the same (as a start, check out this article).