Oppression Quotes by Paulo Freire

Certain members of the oppressor class join the oppressed in their struggle for liberation.

— Paulo Freire

“One does not liberate people by alienating them.”

— Paulo Freire

The oppressed find in the oppressors their model of 'manhood.'

— Paulo Freire

The oppressed, instead of striving for liberation, tend themselves to become oppressors.

— Paulo Freire

The oppressors do not favor promoting the community as a whole, but rather selected leaders.

— Paulo Freire

The greatest humanistic and historical task of the oppressed: to liberate themselves...

— Paulo Freire

“For the oppressors..to 'be' is to have and to be the class of the "haves".”

— Paulo Freire

The behavior of the oppressed is a prescribed behavior, following as it does the guidelines of the oppressor.

— Paulo Freire

Indeed, the interests of the oppressors lie in 'changing the consciousness of the oppressed, not the situation which oppresses them';

— Paulo Freire

To simply think about the people, as the dominators do, without any self-giving in that thought, to fail to think with the…

— Paulo Freire

The former oppressors do not feel liberated. On the contrary, they genuinely consider themselves to be oppressed.

— Paulo Freire

“The oppressed, as objects, as "things", have no purposes except those their oppressors prescribe for them.”

— Paulo Freire

The oppressed, having internalized the image of the oppressor and adopted his guidelines, are fearful of freedom.

— Paulo Freire

“The rightist sectarian wants to slow down the historical process, to domesticate time and thus to domesticate men and women.”

— Paulo Freire

Dehumanization, although a concrete historical fact, is not a given destiny but the result of an unjust order that engenders violence in…

— Paulo Freire

This pedagogy makes oppression and its causes objects of reflection by the oppressed, and from that reflection will come their necessary engagement…

— Paulo Freire

In order for the oppressed to be able to wage the struggle for their liberation, they must perceive the reality of oppression…

— Paulo Freire

The oppressors do not perceive their monopoly on having more as a privilege which dehumanizes others and themselves. They cannot see that,…

— Paulo Freire

“No pedagogy which is truly liberating can remain distant from the oppressed by treating them as unfortunates and by presenting for their…

— Paulo Freire

“The oppressed, having internalised the image of the oppressor and adopted his guideline are fearful of freedom. Freedom would require them to…

— Paulo Freire

But almost always, during the initial stage of the struggle, the oppressed, instead of striving for liberation, tend themselves to become oppressors,…

— Paulo Freire

In order for this struggle to have meaning, the oppressed must not, in seeking to regain their humanity (which is a way…

— Paulo Freire

The oppressors develop a series of methods precluding any presentation of the world as a problem and showing it rather as a…

— Paulo Freire

The parent-child relationship in the home usually reflects the objective cultural conditions of the surrounding social structure. If the conditions which penetrate…

— Paulo Freire

“After all, the task of the humanists is surely not that of pitting their slogans against the slogans of the oppressors, with…

— Paulo Freire

With the establishment of a relationship of oppression, violence has already begun. Never in history has violence been initiated by the oppressed.…

— Paulo Freire

The object of a dialogical-liberterian action is not to 'dislodge' the oppressed from a mythological reality in order to 'bind' them to…

— Paulo Freire

“Oppression is domesticating. The gravest obstacle to the achievement of liberation is that oppressive reality absorbs those within it and thereby acts…

— Paulo Freire

Looking at the past must only be a means of understanding more clearly what and who they are so that they can…

— Paulo Freire

“As long as the oppressed remain unaware of the causes of their condition, they fatalistically "accept" their exploitation.”

— Paulo Freire

It is essential for the oppressed to realize that when they accept the struggle for humanization they also accept, from that moment,…

— Paulo Freire

Leaders who do not act dialogically, but insist on imposing their decisions, do not organize the people--they manipulate them. They do not…

— Paulo Freire

“This, then, is the great humanistic and historical task of the oppressed: to liberate themselves and their oppressors as well.”

— Paulo Freire

Attempting to liberate the oppressed without their reflective participation in the act of liberation is to treat them as objects that must…

— Paulo Freire

Every relationship of domination, of exploitation, of oppression is by definition violent, whether or not the violence is expressed by drastic means.…

— Paulo Freire

In order for the oppressed to unite they must first cut the umbilical cord of magic and myth which binds them to…

— Paulo Freire

At a certain point in their existential experience, the oppressed feel an irresistible attraction toward the oppressor and his way of life.…

— Paulo Freire

Education as the exercise of domination stimulates the credulity of students, with the ideological intent (often not perceived by educators) of indoctrinating…

— Paulo Freire

Even revolution, which transforms a concrete situation of oppression by establishing the process of liberation, must confront this phenomenon. Many of the…

— Paulo Freire