pedagogy of the oppressed by paulo freire

The pursuit of full humanity, however, cannot be carried out in isolation or individualism, but only in fellowship and solidarity; therefore it cannot unfold in the antagonistic relations between oppressors and oppressed. No one can be authentically human while he prevents others from being so. Attempting to be more human, individualistically, leads to having more, egotistically, a form of dehumanization.

— Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

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"Leaders who do not act dialogically, but insist on imposing their decisions, do not organize the people -- they manipulate them. They do not liberate, nor are they liberated: they oppress"

-- Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire

I hope his ass goes bankrupt again

1429- El mundo no es, el mundo está siendo."

(Paulo Freire)

"Any situation in which "A" objectively exploits "B" or hinders his and her pursuit of self-affirmation as a responsible person is one of oppression. Such a situation in itself constitutes violence, even when sweetened by false generosity, because it interferes with the individual's ontological and historical vocation to be more fully human. With the establishment of a relationship of oppression, violence has already begun. Never in history has violence been initiated by the oppressed. How could they be the initiators, if they themselves are the result of violence? How could they be the sponsors of something whose objective inauguration called forth their existence as oppressed? There would be no oppressed had there been no prior situation of violence to establish their subjugation."

Paolo Freire- Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

BFP just had a wonderful meeting and we talked about so many things! if you wanna be involved in conversations like these and help us start IN-PERSON, GLOBAL LIBERATION SCHOOLS, beginning with Washington, DC, New Orleans, LA, and Sydney, NSW, Australia (yep, that’s the big news we’ve been hiding), join our discord server (link in bio)! any and all ages/walks of life are welcome, but our main focus is on middle school through university-aged youth, esp youth of color!

i’m so excited to work with y’all :D

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[ID: Screenshot of Reaux’s text message in Discord: “thank you everyone for coming, y'all were super engaged even tho it was a **3 HOUR MEETING!** the meeting recording will be uploaded within the next hour! as a VERY simplified recap we discussed:

- how chapters will function procedurally

- translocal organizing

- the Black Panther Party's oakland community school

- reactionary vs revolutionary intercommunalism

- dialectical materialism

- ALL 4 CHAPTERS of Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed

- Stop Cop City updates and what that means for us”

/End ID.]

Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (trans. Myra Bergman Ramos)

stop equating self-defense with violence.

NO ONE endorses Palestinians doing back to Israelis what has been done to them, as revenge. to commit such violations would destroy their souls, and violate the principles of Islam and humanity itself. IOF soldiers are committing horrific war crimes. BUT armed resistance and self-defense, that requires actually killing IOF soldiers? yeah. why would you oppose that? it is literally survival under genocidal terror.

"Violence is initiated by those who oppress, who exploit, who fail to recognize others as persons — not by those who are oppressed, exploited, and unrecognized....It is not the helpless, subject to terror, who initiate terror, but the violent, who with their power create the concrete situation which begets the 'rejects of life.' It is not the tyrannized who initiate despotism, but the tyrants....Force is used not by those who have become weak under the preponderance of the strong, but by the strong who have emasculated them." -Paolo Friere, The Pedagogy of the Oppressed

pedagogy of the oppressed by paulo freire

This, then, is the great humanistic and historical task of the oppressed: to liberate themselves and their oppressors as well. The oppressors, who oppress, exploit, and rape by virtue of their power, cannot find in this power the strength to liberate either the oppressed or themselves. Only power that springs from the weakness of the oppressed will be sufficiently strong to free both. Any attempt to “soften” the power of the oppressor in deference to the weakness of the oppressed almost always manifests itself in the form of false generosity; indeed, the attempt never goes beyond this. In order to have the continued opportunity to express their “generosity” the oppressors must perpetuate injustice as well. An unjust social order is the permanent fount of this "generosity," which is nourished by death, despair, and poverty. That is why the dispensers of false generosity become desperate at the slightest threat to its source.

— Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Freire

Self-depreciation is another characteristic of the oppressed, which derives from their internalization of the opinion the oppressors hold of them. So often do they hear that they are good for nothing, know nothing and are incapable of learning anything−that they are sick, lazy, and unproductive−that in the end they become convinced of their own unfitness.

— Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

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"From these pages I hope at least the following will endure: my trust in the people, and my faith in men and women, and in the creation of a world in which it will be easier to love"

-- Paulo Freire in the 'Pedagogy of the Oppressed'

I'm going to make a longer post someday about Melshi's importance to the story and to Cassian specifically. But right now I'm fixated on this beach scene from episode 11 where he ruminates on the getting to breathe in the fresh air in what feels like an eternity - a most basic quality of life that he had relegated to the deep recesses of his mind because that's just how brutally the prison had dehumanised him and the other inmates.

Melshi was the first person to suggest to Cassian that they spread the word because he was thinking about just how many prisoners may have died in their attempt to escape Narkina 5 to reclaim something as fundamental as a right to life. He understands that if they don't talk about it, five thousand lives will have perished for nothing with no one to remember their names or light a candle in their memory. Melshi is the first to suggest that he and Cassian take this personal fight to a popular level - to educate, agitate, and organise others against the empire because he understands the five thousand people of that prison deserved to rest their feet in the sand and take in the fresh air too. It just took me back to a section in Paulo Freire's The Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970) where he says the following words: Who are better prepared than the oppressed to understand the terrible significance of an oppressive society? Who suffer the effects of oppression more than the oppressed? Who can better understand the necessity of liberation? They will not gain this liberation by chance but through the praxis of their quest for it, through their recognition of the necessity to fight for it. And this fight, because of the purpose given it by the oppressed, will actually constitute an act of love opposing the lovelessness which lies at the heart of the oppressors' violence, lovelessness even when clothed in false generosity. I'm eager to see Melshi return for season 2, especially because despite being one of the most reticent members of Unit Five-Two-D, he was possibly the most radicalised of them all from the very beginning. I'm really hoping we see his journey towards becoming Sergeant Melshi in the rebel alliance and how he conglomerated other broken, battered, and defeated people into a rebellion. ~ Andor, S01E11 (2022)