Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Pablo Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” is hands down one of the hardest reads I have encountered. That is not to say I was not fascinated by his stance on oppression and his take on humanization and dehumanization. Humans assume that we all fall under the humanization category and fail to see what dehumanization is. We are unable to fully understand humanization without truly understanding the latter. In order for humanization to come through, we need to get through all of the dehumanization that goes on in the world. We as humans must overcome all the bad in the world in order to really see all that is good around us. The oppressed are those who are dehumanized. People who oppress others see these oppressed people as things or objects, not humans to be treated with integrity. Oppressors also feel the oppressed are in their situation because they are “lazy” and ungrateful to the generous overtures offered by the elitist class.

One may ask, why don’t the oppressed do anything to change their state? Freire states that the oppressed have adopted the guidelines of their oppressor and they have the feeling of “fearing of freedom” (46). The oppressed are so used to being in this state that it is too easy to just stay in it. They only way they can get out of it is by working together with others who are oppressed.  The caution of the oppressed of becoming oppressors is emphasized by Freire in that oppression is what has been modeled for them as a structural situation. That is when he says that the oppressed can become the oppressors.