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Now, leaving aside all the physical factors one can quote - leaving aside the rape or murder, leaving aside the bloody catalogue of oppression which we are too familiar with any way - what the system does to the subjugated is to destroy his sense of reality. It destroys his father's authority over him. His father can no longer tell him anything because his past has disappeared.

James Baldwin#31

RealityAuthorityOppressionSystem

About this quote

What does it mean?
Oppressive systems destroy the subjugated's sense of reality and familial authority.
In plain terms
Oppression makes people lose touch with reality and respect for parents.
What can you take from it?
Oppression destroys reality and authority.

Where it applies

  • racial oppression
  • systemic control

Putting it to work

  • recognize systemic destruction
  • rebuild authority

Questions to consider

  • How does oppression affect family?
  • What is lost when reality is destroyed?

Another view

This effect may vary by individual resilience.

More from James Baldwin

  1. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever b…

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  2. It is true that two wrongs don't make a right, as we love to point out to the people we have wronged. But one wrong doesn't make a right, either. People who ha…

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  3. It will be a great day for America, incidentally, when we begin to eat bread again, instead of the blasphemous and tasteless foam rubber that we have substitut…

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