The Ability to Do the Right Thing in the Face of Powerlessness

In a traditional sense, one correlates oppression with tyrants and dictators. In contemporary society, however, oppression has become an institutional concept seen across the board, contrasting the concept of discrimination that is a methodological individualist concept (Young, 1988). Within her account, Iris Marion Young analyzes institutional oppression of groups within a contemporary liberal society. For Young, to be in a group is to share with others a way of life that defines a person’s identity and is by which others identify that person. Young postulates that groups within a society experience structural oppression through the five diverse categories of exploitation, marginality, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and violence.

While Young defines five different areas of structural injustice, this essay will focus on Young’s concept of powerlessness. To Young, the norms of respectability are associated with professional culture, and by extension, the social divide found within our professional society; the difference between “middle class” and “working class” experiences (Young, 1988). As those in the working class tend to have a smaller income, they tend to lack the funds needed to gain a college education; without a college education, one cannot achieve the power of authority needed to have autonomy in and outside the professional workplace; finally, without workplace autonomy, one cannot achieve the respect needed to in order to associate as a “working professional.” Thus, as the norms of respectability coincide with professional culture, those of the working class tend to lack the privilege of professional respectability given freely to those of the middle class. This divide correlates with the dynamics of racism and sexism, as women and people of color tend to experience the oppression of powerlessness on a more quotidian basis, having to prove the respectability that is freely given to others (Young, 1988). In fact, working-class white men are usually given automatic respect until their working-class status is revealed, showing how many people do not have any autonomy in making decisions that regularly affect the conditions of their professional and unprofessional lives (Young, 1988).

This disparity between the powerful and the powerless makes it so if one professional privilege is denied to an individual, it is extremely hard to gain the others. The result is a downward spiral of powerlessness as one loss of privilege leads to another, making it extremely difficult for those experiencing the oppression to change their circumstances. Therefore, it can be argued that the structural injustice of powerlessness influences one’s ability to do the right thing.

Powerlessness is maintained through societal norms and the unconscious actions of individuals (Young, 1988). When individuals realize their privilege of power over others, they can be hard-pressed to do the right thing and take accountability for their contribution to powerlessness. Take the case of the white middle-class professional: the majority of professional America encourages the practice of stepping on the toes of others to succeed. Given this environment, the privileges automatically granted to the white middle-class professional could be seen as advantages that they can use to get ahead in their competitive field. Thus, when faced with the ethical and moral dilemma of unconsciously contributing to powerlessness, the white middle-class professional can be hard-pressed to do the right thing of creating new working environments that would give equal opportunity to all professionals, as this would cause a loss of their “advantages.” Thus, the oppression continues on with few individuals taking accountability for their privilege at the expense of the powerless, validating the argument that doing the right thing in the face of powerlessness is influenced by one’s experience of structural injustice through the group by which they belong, whether that be the powerless or the powerful.