Blogpost #2; Group post

Face of oppression: Powerlessness

1.       A. “The powerless are those who lack authority or power even in this mediated sense, those over whom power is exercised without their exercising it; the powerless are situated so that they must take orders and rarely have the right to give them.”  (Young, pp. 56).  There is a divide from one class to the other and it is hard to cross the boundary between the two.  The privileged are often born into the group of privileged and the rest try to be resilient.  In this particular context, powerlessness refers to the way in which workers are divided and segmented into jobs with individualism and authority and jobs with little or no autonomy and authority. Workers in lower-status jobs experience more powerlessness (both on the job and in the sphere of politics) than workers with professional jobs. At the same time, giving some workers a little bit of autonomy on the job can undermine a sense of solidarity that they might otherwise feel towards all workers.      

2.       The social groups that are affected are the non-professionals, and those that benefit are the professionals.  Young uses examples of authority to describe this situation.  Due to the non-professionals lack of power, professionals are able to manipulate power over the non-professionals.  They determine authority and, generally, how they function in their professional setting. 

3.       The most obvious setting of powerlessness oppression is at work.  There are "professionals" and "non-professionals" in all settings of work. For example, in manufacturing companies, the manager is the "professional" and those doing the manual labor are the "non-professionals". Another setting affected is home life because of the child-parent relationship. The parents possess the power, and the children often do not have much power (at least for a certain amount of time when they are younger).

4.       How does this form function?  There are three aspects that an individual must have in order to be a privileged professional. First, in order to acquire a practicing profession, individuals are required to obtain a college education, allowing for progressive development.  Second, most professionals "have considerable day-to-day work autonomy" (Young, pp. 57). Though they may not have a direct influence on everyone, they do have at least some privilege to make choices.  Third, professionals gain "respectability" through dress, speech, tastes, and demeanor.
           Those who lack these aspects are susceptible to the powerlessness of oppression. In today’s world, it is hard to get a job without a college degree.  It seems that things are even leading down the path of grad school.  If we were to go apply for a professional job wearing blue jeans and a t-shirt with no college education, chances are we would not land that job.  The reasons why we didn’t go to college might be because we were not privileged enough.  These privileges are easier to obtain for a person who has been around power than a person who has not. 

5.       Adoptive parents are more privileged because they have a lot more control.  Often, birthmothers are more oppressed because they are less educated and don’t often have the resources to be able to keep their child.  They don’t have the ability/respectability to prove that they can keep their child.  Adoptees are definitely the most oppressed and powerless.  They literally have no influence over what the outcome is, because they do not know “what is good for them”.  Adoptive parents that are white, have more power over those that are not.  There is power even in the realm of adoptive parents.