The Anatomy of Oppression

[Music]

[Applause]

today i stand in front of you a woman

a woman that’s made a decision to no

longer let the most painful parts in her

body

go untreated medical professionals say

that if a pain lasts longer than three

days

could be abnormal to get it checked out

so today i want to ask you have you ever

received

a bad diagnosis news you weren’t

anticipating

circumstances that left you breathless

having heart palpitations

that’s exactly what happened to me the

moment i began to present

my point of view on the anatomy of

oppression

i’ll be honest i’m not in the medical

field but as a true researcher i wanted

to do my due diligence

so as i put oppression into the search

engine and began to read the text

to my surprise i hadn’t just come across

a definition

but i felt as if i had received a bad

diagnosis

words like abuse neglect

persecution pain and suffering

left me with the conclusion this term

needed to be reevaluated

and today i’m going to do just that i’m

submitting to you my findings

that if oppression is a living organism

when’s the last time we dissected its

parts

it brought me back to a time when i used

to work in retail

if you’ve been there then you understand

it is long hours

long days long nights and tonight wasn’t

any different

after a really long shift a co-worker

and i decided to go

and get a bite to eat we thought that we

would go to our

favorite wing spot because it was going

to be quick fast in a hurry

so as we sat down in the booth reviewing

the menu figuring out what combo we were

going to get

the waitress approaches the booth

and when she did i immediately felt

uncomfortable she looked like my mother

not because she favored her in likeness

but because she was old enough to be my

mother

thought started circulating in my mind

like

why is she here and is this the time

when i tell her that i want the sauce

on the side and the lemon pepper

seasoning i actually don’t like on my

chicken but i love it on my fries

yes i’m one of those

but before i could get out my order she

looked at me

and said honey scoot over

before i could say no i slid myself to

the left and she

plopped down right next to me and when

she did

she let out the biggest sigh

something like a

at this moment i look across at the

booth at my co-worker

trying to read the look on her face it

was something between confused

irritated and she was definitely still

hungry

the waitress said thank you so much for

scooting over she just needed to rest

her feet

that she had actually been working a

double shift and that wasn’t anything

new

that unfortunately after the passing of

her husband

she’s been forced to work double and

triple shifts just to make ends meet

she went on to talk about how much love

there was

between them and all of the memories

that

they had shared but she was devastated

to learn about the amount of debt

that they were in when i think about the

first part of this dissection

i think about the body it’s the easiest

way for me to see if there’s irritation

or infection at least on myself

so when i think about the body of

oppression i think about what it looks

like to me

a list of unfortunate circumstances

situations that may not have necessarily

been our fault

not because we made any wrong choices or

decisions

but we’re left with the traumatic

experiences of our past

and unfortunately the triggers that

follow them

as i sat there a little bit longer just

resting on what oppression looked like

to me

i asked myself the question how has this

diagnosis been allowed to function for

so long

i mean oppression isn’t a new term but

yet this is something that has gone from

woman to woman from city to city from

state to state from country to culture

like it just flowed like blood does

through your veins it brought me back to

the booth with my co-worker

as the waitress gets up to go put in our

order i’m ready i’m like we’re about to

debrief

about what just transpired but before i

could get out my thoughts she definitely

gave me some of hers

she thought that it was super

unprofessional of this waitress to

not only ask to have a seat but to

actually

take a minute and rest her feet she

thought it was inappropriate

for her to sit down at the table with us

as if we were friends

oh and that

that psy that was dramatics

i saw the words coming out of her mouth

but i just didn’t have a response i was

confused

don’t get me wrong i really liked my

co-worker

we shared a lot of laughs but we both

sat in the same booth

listening to the same story

about this woman’s loss of her husband

about the physical

mental emotional and financial suffering

that she was in and yet we came to do

two different conclusions

it made me think that the blood of this

diagnosis

is a misunderstanding of other people’s

traumatic past

it’s the minimizing of their triggers

and unfortunately touching labels to

that misunderstanding

words like inappropriate unprofessional

dramatic i have to be honest with you as

i sat in that booth

i was no longer hungry

i felt helpless for her in that moment

it brought me to one of my favorite

quotes from the late maya angelou she

said

people will forget what you did to them

people will forget what you said to them

but people will never forget how you

made them

feel i stand here over a decade later

remembering how i felt on that day

i remember how i felt when she came over

to the booth and reminded me immediately

of my mother

i remember how i felt when she asked me

to

slide over so she could sit down

and i definitely remember how i felt

when i heard that

that sigh

but more importantly i remember the

response my co-worker had to her story

i remember the lack of empathy and

compassion in that moment

we can blame it on the hunger pains but

it brought me back to my research

i wanted to dig a little bit deeper so i

went to the cells

cells are really important there’s lots

of them two

specifically the white blood cells

primary role is to protect the body at

all cost

protect the body from deadly viruses

toxins

diseases protect the body

where the red blood cells the primary

role is to get

oxygen to our lungs to help us breathe

now that’s important a whole lifeline

so as i sat there doing my research i

asked myself

the question how am i protecting the

body

and have i been the best lifeline not

just to myself

but for everyone around me

today i submit to you an alternative

treatment

because whatever we’ve been prescribed

child it ain’t working so today i just

want to say a little bit more

kindness patience

empathy compassion

a whole lot of love

and dare we not forget

understanding

quickly my research went from definition

to

diagnosis to now a full-on declaration

making a decision to no longer allow the

most painful parts

in our body to go untreated

no longer waiting until that pain and

suffering is unbearable

that we’re busting at the seams

making sure that we are not only being a

lifeline

but we’re relying on our lifelines

one of my closest lifelines asked me a

question

i never thought a question could be

medication but

when these three words were released

from their mouth i

immediately felt an ease

a release of the pain and suffering and

abuse that i experienced in my lifetime

i immediately felt a supportive space

to be able to share and be transparent

and vulnerable about the triggers that i

had picked up along the way

so today i’m going to ask you the same

question

i’m believing that these three words

are going to have a similar effect on

you

walking away knowing that you’re a

lifeline

so today i ask

how’s your heart

i’m kashan milligan thank you

you