For many centuries, the ‘victims’ of the system of rigid class, gender, race, and ethnic inequalities were not given an access to the field of art. As a result, art and culture at large reflected the mindset and worldview of the oppressor, who, typically, was a white man, unable to understand and reflect on the experience of the victim. Although, as a result of the Civil Rights Movement, social focus had switched to artists with diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds, these changes were not enough to make a quality transition from the center that is occupied by the oppressor. In contrast, the current moment, or the post-oppressionism movement, takes the victimary thinking as the norm. In the meantime, an attempt to return to the grand narrative thinking is socially sanctioned and criticized.
The current artistic movement is characterized by a higher level of radicalism, even if compared to postmodernism. If postmodernism is equipped by the colorblind ideology, post-oppressionism draws public attention to the critical race theory. Because of its radical approach, post-oppressionism is often perceived as inappropriate or obscene. An example of it is Kara Walker’s works, namely, a series of her illustrations ‘Gone: An Historical Romance of Civil War as It Occurred b’tween the Dusky Thighs of One Negress and Her Heart’ (Walker, 1994). Here, oral sex is used to symbolize domination and racial oppression. For instance, in one of the scenes of the illustration, a rich white boy receives oral sex from a black girl and stretches his arms to the sky, as if he is ready to accept the opportunities offered him by the society that privileges him.
In another scene of the illustration ‘Gone: An Historical Romance of Civil War as It Occurred b’tween the Dusky Thighs of One Negress and Her Heart’ (Walker, 1994), a black woman is dropping babies from under her skirt that die as soon as they reach the floor. This image, used to reflect the ‘miscarriages’ of the Civil Rights Era and its failure to bring about quality changes, demonstrates the skepticism and radicalism of post-oppressionism. Another example of how radicalism is translated into culture in post-oppressionism era, is the Dark Knight Rises movie. Fradley (2013) argues that its ‘immanent radicalism manifests itself in the collective desire to see violent social change enacted on multiplex screesn’ (Fradley, 2013, p. 15). It is important to stress the fundamental difference between the way that victims and their rights are articulated in postmodernism and post-oppressionism. Namely, whilst postmodernism is foremost ‘a nonviolent and conscientious act contrary to law usually done with the intent to bring about a change in the policies or laws of the government’ (Dominguez, 2009), post-oppresionism advocates for the idea of introducing changes to the mindsets of people in order to combat microagression.
Post-oppressionism refers not to major historical events, but to the everyday life of people. It helps to acquire a better understanding of the perspective of those who are left without the opportunity to participate in such events, or, in other words, the perspective of a victim. Zinn (1990) argues that Latino artists lost interest in Che Guevara, Maxican revolutionaries, and the images of Aztlan, yet they have the desire to ‘stay in present’. This is evident from the photograph ‘Willie Herron and Grook in 1979 in front of Black and White Mural’ (Gamboa, 1979). In addition to this, post-oppressionism calls for proactive measures taken by regular people. For instance, Bourdieu (2004) encourages everyone to ‘throw their grain of sand into the well-oiled machinery of resigned complicities’ (Bourdieu, 2004, p. 65).
Finally, post-oppressionism crosses nationalistic and theological borders. Post-oppressionism recognizes nationalism and religion as the artificial reality that people are tricked to believe it. Reinhold (2005) argues that current moment is utopian. He goes further to say that ‘it is utopian not because it dreams impossible dreams, but because it recognizes ‘reality’ itself as – precisely – an all-too-real dream enforced by those who prefer to accept a destructive and oppressive status quo’ (Reinhold, 2005, p. 5). Whilst religion itself does not escape, it goes through a tremendous transformation. One example of it is the Crystal Cathedral (Johnson, 1980). In addition to this, religion makes a transition from spirituality and dogmatism to private religions. ‘Birth of the Viractual’ (Nechvatal) vividly demonstrates it with its attempt to personify digital technologies. The same is true for Ryoji Ikeda’s illustration ‘Data’ (Ikeda, 2013).
Post-oppressionist paradigm was not the first one to address the importance of taking the perspective of a victim into account. Both postmodernism and post-oppressionism are fundamentally different in this aspect, if compared to cultural tradition before the 20th century, for example. Namely, back in the end of the 19th century culture was permeated by racism, and images such as the White Man’s Burden (Pears’ Soap, 1890), Washing the Blackamoor White (Pears’ Soap, 1884), or ‘Pears’ Inventor Produces Soft, White, and Beautiful Hands (Pears’ Soap, 1886) vividly demonstrate this. Both postmodernism and post-oppressionism draw public attention to the importance of decoding and questioning ‘reality’. Yet, post-oppressionism is different in the way it radicalizes the importance of combating microagression, its reference to everyday experience of ordinary people, and the way it articulates religion and religious topics. From the lenses of post-oppressionism, an attempt to return to the grand narrative thinking is socially sanctioned and criticized. In the meantime, post-oppressionism presents a paradox. Namely, while it argues that the objective ‘truth’ cannot exist, it presents its own ideas as more ‘true’ than those formed previously.
