25 - From Under One Rock...

"I just don’t believe that when people are being unjustly oppressed that they should let someone else set the rules for them by which they can come out from under that oppression."

               -Malcolm X


       Oppression can be a bottomless pit. Constantly falling, failing, fighting. No matter the amount of effort, small whiffs of success or relief are swept away by the tornado of stigmatizations. When one seeks oppression refuge, it would make sense to want complete separation from their old oppressors. New laws and acts created by a government or group, however, often set forth this liberation. This is a confounding idea, going from under the suppression of one group to a regulated “liberation” under another. Malcolm X struggles with this concept, noted mostly in his statement, “I just don’t believe that when people are being unjustly oppressed that they should let someone else set the rules for them by which they can come out from under that oppression.” It is a bewildering concept to say the least, supposedly being liberated, only to be placed under restrictions (less than before, but restrictions nonetheless) by a secondary group. This can be shown as the case in the establishment of the United States in 1776.


       The original 13 British colonies in eastern North America were a happy group in the early times of colonization. However, over time, the English government began to see the colonies as less of a people and more of a bother, less of an extension of Britain and more of an economic or commercial revenue source. In essence, the American colonists were greatly oppressed by the English government. With the independence in 1776, one would assume that the colonists, having just come from an oppressive government, would be free and individualistic. Quite the opposite happened: the colonists allowed elites of their population to join together and create new laws and government for the new nation. Essentially, the colonists emerged from under one type of oppression, and then immediately began to regulate their freedom. This perfectly feeds into Malcolm X’s point: as this new population is budding, its progress should not be immediately stifled by new oppressive regulations, when that is what it is trying to leave behind.