Unit 1: Identifying forms of oppression - ELIC 140 - Luman - Civic Engagement - Research Guides at Modesto Junior College Library

Frameworks of oppression (Iris Marion Young)

Cultural Dominance (or Cultural Imperialism)
- the establishment of the culture of the ruling class as the norm
Marginalization
- relegating or confining a group of people to a lower social standing or outer edge of society
- examples: people of the non-dominant race, people who are elderly, disabled, or unemployed
Powerlessness
- powerless people are dominated by the ruling class and are situated to take orders and rarely have the right to give them
- examples: professional vs. non-professional labor, sexism, racism
Violence
- members of some groups must fear random, unprovoked attacks on their persons or property
- examples: physical violence, intimidation, harassment, ridicule
Exploitation
- the act of using people's labors to produce profit while not compensating them fairly
- examples: gender exploitation (paying women less) or racial exploitation (slavery)

Find background information on oppression in the Gale Virtual Reference Library:

Gale eBooks This link opens in a new window
Use this database for preliminary reading as you start your research. You'll learn about your topic by reading authoritative topic overviews on a wide variety of subjects.

How to Use Library Databases

This video shows you how to use the Gale eBooks database and the EBSCOhost database.

Recommended databases

Gale eBooks This link opens in a new window
Gale Databases This link opens in a new window
EBSCOhost Databases This link opens in a new window
Gale In Context: Global Issues This link opens in a new window
Films on Demand This link opens in a new window
Instructions for embedding Films on Demand into Canvas.

Using & Finding Books

Why Use Books:

Use books to read broad overviews and detailed discussions of your topic. You can also use books to find primary sources, which are often published together in collections.

Where Do I Find Books?

You'll use the library catalog to search for books, ebooks, articles, and more.

OneSearch (Library Catalog)
OneSearch provides simple, one-stop searching for books and e-books, videos, articles, digital media, and more.

What if MJC Doesn't Have What I Need?

If you need materials (books, articles, recordings, videos, etc.) that you cannot find in the library catalog, use our interlibrary loan service.

Interlibrary Loan
Borrowing materials from other libraries is simple and free.

Finding and Using eBooks

This video shows you how to find and use eBooks from the MJC library.

Sample topics and materials

Bracero program

Search terms: Bracero, Bracero program, guest workers

Bracero Program
Overview article from Racial and Ethnic Relations in America (accessed through Gale eBooks)
Documenting the Stories of Bracero Guest Workers
From NPR (accessed through EBSCO database)
Harvest of Loneliness: The Bracero Program
Documentary film (accessed through Films on Demand database)

Sexual assault in the workplace

Search terms: sexual assault, sexual abuse, sexual assault workplace, metoo movement

Rape in the Fields
PBS documentary (accessed through Films on Demand database)
Sexual Assault And Harassment May Have Lasting Health Repercussions For Women
article from NPR (accessed through the web)

Child labor

Search terms: child labor, child labor laws, child welfare, child labor + country (such as: child labor India), child labor + product (such as: child labor tobacco)

What They Did for their Summer Vacation: How a Loophole in America's Child Labor Laws lets Teens Work Dangerous Jobs Harvesting Tobacco
2015 article from the New York Times (accessed through Gale databases)
The Trade-off Between Child Labour and Schooling in India.
2014 article from Education Economics (accessed through EBSCO databases)

Organ trafficking

Search terms: organ trafficking, organ transplants, human trafficking

Human trafficking : A Reference Handbook
2017 print book available at East Campus Library
One Doctor’s War Against Global Organ Trafficking
2017 article from PBS News Hour (accessed through the web)

International adoptions

Search terms: international adoption, intercountry adoption, orphanages

International Adoptions
2015 article from Issues in U.S. Immigration (accessed thorough the Gale eBooks)
"Those Kids Are No Longer Yours"
2018 article from The Nation (accessed through EBSCO databases)

Exploitation in the trucking industry

Search terms: trucking, trucking industry, truck drivers

Rigged
2017 investigative reporting from USA Today (accessed through the web)
Trucking Industry: Dan Rather Reports
2010 documentary film (accessed through Films on Demand)

Uyhgur people

Search terms: Uyhgur, Uygur, Uighur

China: Ethnic Conflict in the World’s Largest Multinational State
2016 article from the Encyclopedia of Modern Ethnic Conflicts (accessed through the Gale eBooks).
'Cultural Genocide': How China is Tearing Uyghur Families Apart in Xinjiang
2018 article from CNN (accessed through the web)
How China Uses High-Tech Surveillance to Subdue Minorities
May 2019 article from the New York Times (accessed through the web)
Inside China’s Push to Turn Muslim Minorities Into an Army of Workers
December 2019 article from the New York Times (accessed through the web)
Her Uighur Parents Were Model Chinese Citizens. It Didn't Matter.
January 2020 article from the New York Times gives a personal account of a Uighur family in China.

Rohingya people

Search terms: Rohingya, Myanmar, refugees

Rohingyas
2017 article from the Worldmark Encyclopedia of Culture and Daily Life (accessed through Gale eBooks)
Roots of Discrimination Against Rohingya Minorities: Society, Ethnicity and International Relations
2018 article from Intelletual Discourse (accessed through EBSCO databases)

Economic Oppression in the Taxi Industry

Search terms in EBSCO databases: Taxicabs New York

As Thousands of Taxi Drivers Were Trapped in Loans, Top Officials Counted the Money
A May 2019 article from the New York Times (accessed through the web)
‘We Were Wiped Out’: New Yorkers Preyed on Chicago Cabbies
October 2019 article from the NYTimes (accessed through the web)
Taken for a Ride
June 2012 article from Slate (accessed through the web)

Redlining

Search terms: Redlining, Discrimination in mortgage loans

Redlining
Overview article from the 2017 encyclopedia Racial & Ethnic Relations in America (accessed through Gale eBooks)
Modestans Shine Light on Area’s Racially Restrictive Housing Policies of the Past
September 8, 2019 column from the Modesto Bee (accessed through the web)
The Color of Law: a forgotten history of how our government segregated America
Book in the MJC Library collection on East and West Campus
Your Home's Value is Based on Racism
Opinion piece from the NY Times, March 2021

Syrian Refugees

Search terms for general articles about the conditions in Turkey for refugees: Syrian refugees in Turkey (limit search by year for most recent articles)

Syrian Refugees Toil on Turkey’s Hazelnut Farms With Little to Show for It
April 2019 article from The New York Times (accessed through the web)

Police Brutality

Where the Police Wear Masks, and the Bodies Pile Up Fast
December 2019 article from the New York Times about violent militias in Brazil who target suspected gang members (accessed through the web)
Vigil Honors the Memory of Elijah McClain
July 2020 article from the New York Times about a vigil for a musician who died in police custody. The police tried to break up the vigil.

Child Soldiering

"We Were Bulletproof": As Child Soldiers Grow Up, Legacy of War Lingers
October 2020 NY Times article about former child soldiers in Myanmar

Femicide

Search terms: femicide, violence against women, crimes against women, intimate partner violence

Articles on Femicide
23 different articles published from 2015-2020 on the topic from The Conversation, US edition
Mexican Government Paralyzed in the Face of a Wave of Femicides
Opinion piece from Human Rights Watch Exectutive Director, Americas Division, March 2020
Women Protest for Their Lives: Fighting Femicide in Latin America
February 2020 article from The Atlantic Council
Femicide: The Murders Giving Europe a Wake-Up Call
September 2019 article from BBC News

Israeli Occupation of Palestine

Search terms: Palestine, Palestinian Authority, Arab-Israel Conflict, Palestinian Refugees, Palestinian oppression, Palestine occupation, Hamas, Palestine Liberation Organization, Intifada, West Bank, Gaza

Israel's Occupation: 50 Years of Dispossession
2017 article from Amnesty International
Israel and Palestine: Events of 2020
Annual report from Human Rights Watch
Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territories 2019
Report from Amnesty International
Palestinians All Too Familiar with Oppression of Lockdowns
Opinion piece comparing the COVID lockdowns with what Palestinians face under Israeli occupation.

Masculine / Patriarchal Cultures

Search terms: Patriarchy, patriarchal system, male dominance, masculinity, oppression of women. Try also combining terms like patriarchy Mexico, or patriarchy India, or patriarchy Islam, or patriarchy Christianity.

The Age of Patriarchy: How an Unfashionable Idea Became a Rallying Cry for Feminism Today
June 2018 "long read" from the Guardian (a UK newspaper)
The Origins of Sexism: How Men Came to Rule 12,000 Years Ago
Antropological look at the issue from the U.K. based New Scientist
America Is Still a Patriarchy
November 2012 article from The Atlantic
What Is The Role Of Religion In Furthering The Patriarchal Agenda?
Opinion piece written by a blogger and posted on an Indian feminist website in July 2017

Masculinty or the Gender Gap
Chapter from Afghanistan 101: Understanding Afghan Culture

Redlining

Search terms: redlining, housing segregation, residential segregation, housing inequality, housing inequity

Owned: A Tale of Two Americas (a film about home ownership and the creation of two divergent Americas)

What Is Redlining?
Article from 2021 in the New York Times
The Lasting Impacts of Segregation and Redlining
2021 article from Indiana University/Purdue University
Causes and Consequences of Separate and Unequal Neighborhoods
Explainer from the Urban Institute
Redlining Is Illegal, But It’s Still Hurting Latino Families
2019 article from a health research organization affiliated with the University of Texas