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Oppression, Liberation
Dehumanization is a process that oppressors use to prevent human beings from achieving the freedom to understand and change their conditions. In an oppressive society, oppressors use dehumanization to maintain their power over others and prevent them from being more authentically human. Humanization, then, is the opposite process, which oppressed people use to become more free and affirm their identities.
Dehumanization, Humanization Quotes in Pedagogy of the Oppressed
The Pedagogy of the Oppressed quotes below are all either spoken by Dehumanization, Humanization or refer to Dehumanization, Humanization. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 1 Quotes
While the problem of humanization has always, from an axiological point of view, been humankind’s central problem, it now takes on the character of an inescapable concern.
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Before delving into his argument in detail, Freire frames everything that follows through this “central problem”: the fight for liberation is also a fight for humanization, and a “pedagogy of the oppressed” is also a humanizing pedagogy. Educators and revolutionaries, who are committed to humanizing all people, struggle against the oppressive forces that wish to keep people dehumanized and preserve their own power. In this way, Freire shows that education and political action are important ways that people come to understand themselves as human beings—and therefore, they are very useful tools for changing how people perceive themselves and others.
Freedom is acquired by conquest, not by gift. It must be pursued constantly and responsibly. Freedom is not an ideal located outside of man; nor is it an idea which becomes a myth. It is rather the indispensible condition for the quest for human completion.
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After describing how oppressed people can be “fearful of freedom,” Freire talks about the idea of freedom in more detail. Freedom, to Freire, is a state of being that makes people feel autonomous and responsible for their own lives; oppression, on the other hand, makes people strive to conform to their oppressors’ standards. It is also a key aspect of humanization, and Freire argues that having freedom allows people to affirm their identities more fully. Because of oppression, people have to actively pursue their freedom in the face of a system that does not want them to have it. Freedom Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad
Liberation is thus a childbirth, and a painful one. The man or woman who emerges is a new person, viable only as the oppressor-oppressed contradiction is superseded by the humanization of all people. Or to put it another way, the solution of this contradiction is born in the labor which brings into the world this new being: no longer oppressor, no longer oppressed, but human in the process of achieving freedom.
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Before describing liberation as a kind of “childbirth,” Freire integrates education into his argument: how can education work as a tool for oppressed people to reach freedom and humanization? Freire argues that education can help people realize where they fit into the oppressive system that much of the world depends on. In the process of liberation, oppressed people and oppressors can abandon those roles that previously defined their lives—and begin, by contrast, to define themselves on their own terms. This argument is also very dialectical: Freire argues that liberation resolves the differences between oppressors and oppressed people by giving both Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dol
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.
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Freire points out that oppression shapes the consciousnesses of both oppressors and oppressed people, then he specifically defines oppression for the first time in this quote. For Freire, oppression is anything that keeps people from being humanized—it interrupts their natural desire to affirm themselves as human beings. Because oppression affects this key aspect of humanity, it is also an act of violence against others. Freire also criticizes what he calls the “false generosity” of people who claim to help the oppressed through charity, but who rely on a higher social status to do so: they, too, commit violence because they Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non.
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Dehumanization, Humanization Term Timeline in Pedagogy of the Oppressed
The timeline below shows where the term Dehumanization, Humanization appears in Pedagogy of the Oppressed. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...start of the chapter, Freire introduces what he calls “humankind’s central problem”: the problem of “humanization” (the natural human drive to affirm ourselves as human beings) and “dehumanization,” which is a...
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...owned. And because oppressors feel that they can own humanity, they see the fight for humanization and freedom as inherently dangerous. Oppressors also rely on controlling others, to the point that...
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Chapter 2
...support oppressed people’s right to make decisions and ask questions for themselves in pursuit of humanization. It must rely on dialogue at every stage of the process.
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Chapter 4
...direct result of praxis and dialogue among the oppressed and leaders, with the goal of humanizing all people.
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