The symbolic oppression and the response of the oppressed

Abstract

The present essay has the objective of connecting the theory created by Pierre Bourdieu on the symbolic violence and the text of Audre Lorde, “The use of anger: women responding to racism” from her book “Sister Outsider”; demonstrating the importance of the debate on the relationship between dominant and dominated from racial bias, a topic addressed by both authors in their texts. For this purpose, we intend to differentiate the objective results of hatred, anger and guilt, as well as the way in which invisible aggressions affect the life of the oppressed. With the approach of racism in the life of the “women of color” (expression used by Lorde to encompass all non-white women) that even today, in a social pyramid, they are at a disadvantage in terms of other individuals. It is part of the objectives also to bring to the surface the reaction of the oppressed as a natural consequence of centuries of silencing, deprivation and dehumanization, analyzing the institutional mechanisms for social pacification.