Sirois 1

Jocelyne Sirois

Mrs. Lavigne

ELA 111

4 June 2023

MGP

Response 2: Visual text

Internalized Oppression- Naming and peeling away the layers of shame performed by

Zed Xaba is an informative and powerful TedTalk that outlines the subject of internalized

oppression. Xaba’s organization of her presentation was exceptional, and her introduction gave

viewers an in-depth explanation and enough background knowledge to understand the rest of her

speech. Not only does she talk about the course themes, but she also mentions how racial

segregation, discrimination, language, or environment can affect one’s mentality or identity,

which can maintain unequal amounts of power between groups. When one is socialized with

hearing the same things about themselves or their group, they are subject to believing it, to which

they apply these beliefs to external environments of different beliefs. For example, when Xaba

was training in Ghana, some of her group members/classmates walked outside to work, and Xaba

felt it was wrong to sit on the porch that was surrounded by the beautiful hotel and beach that

was located 50 feet away. In Ghana, a place away from where she lives, her race can do

whatever they want, including sitting on the luxurious porch. One thing that I am still

questioning is why oppressed groups typically have a positive attitude towards dominant groups,

and a negative attitude towards themselves? Clearly it is a psychological issue, but I wonder how

or why it happens. Once identifying her internalized oppression, Xaba quoted from Carl Jung,

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate” This
 Sirois 2

quote is relevant because she struggled with oppression and accepted that she could not change

the sides of power, therefore her “fate” was to follow the discriminatory regulations. Before

watching this TedTalk, I thought that internalized oppression was only struggling against one’s

own thoughts and thinking negatively of oneself. However, after listening to this text I realized

that there is a lot more to this type of oppression, that it is not about hating yourself, or having

low self-esteem. It's about thinking the way that others have treated you, thinking that you cannot

do something, because you were not allowed to do so before.