Introduction
This chapter launches an investigation into why success for Black Americans has been historically obstructed, arguing that these challenges are not accidents of fate but the result of intentional, structural, and institutionalized oppression. It defines the nuanced terminology of systemic racism and illustrates how these frameworks function in tandem to create stacked, cumulative disadvantages in economics, health, and law. By grounding the reality of racialized oppression in current statistical evidence, the chapter sets the stage for the book’s central thesis: a “Grace Interaction,” a theological and practical framework designed to build resilience and mitigate the corrosive effects of inequality.
Manifestations of Oppression
According to David and Derthick (2023), because oppression is omnipresent, everyone is likely to have witnessed, experienced, inflicted, or felt its negative consequences. This unfair process of aiding some people while harming others and the resulting condition of inequality between people is oppression. “In addition to understanding that oppression is both a state and a process and that the process of oppression can be done through imposition and deprivation, it is also very important to clarify two key and necessary components of oppression—Power and Privilege. By its very definition oppression does not exist if there is no power and privilege inequalities between people” (David & Derthick, 2023, p. 6). The writers assert that, despite its pervasiveness, we all need to pay attention to its manifestations and dynamics. The following paragraphs provide a concise overview of oppression and its many forms.
