Pub 3

When somebody refers to egalitarianism, they are referring to something that is more of an ideology than an actuality. Egalitarianism is a belief in human equality on a political, social, and economical level. Unfortunately, egalitarianism is not prevalent in the world today, but it is a concept that more and more countries are becoming familiar with as time progresses. According to the great civil rights activist Martin Luther King, “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” This quote perfectly describes the conditions of oppression in society. It is essentially saying that somebody evil enough to oppress others will not change their ways due to sympathy. It is the responsibility of those being oppressed to fight the very system that is oppressing them. This is the only way to bring an end to their mistreatment.

Edwidge Dandicat wrote the story “Children of the Sea” in order to provide readers with a clear example of oppression and its effects on the oppressed. This story details a male in the process of escaping Haiti due to its oppressive government policies. It also describes the horrible treatment of the Haitian people through the eyes of a young woman. Dandicat perfectly exemplifies oppression with the quote, “They have this thing now that they do. If they come into a house and there is a son and a mother there, they hold a gun to their heads. They make the son sleep with his mother. If it is a daughter and father, they do the same thing.” (Dandicat 12) The gruesomeness of the Haitian military’s actions are a clear reminder of how truly miserable oppressed human beings can be. Even though the people of Haiti demanded their freedom, it was not given to them so easily. This is the reason that the male character has escaped the island and essentially demanded his own freedom in a way. In the end of the story, the male believes that he is going to die. Instead of being sad however, he treats it as his final escape to freedom. “I go to them now as though it was always meant to be, as though the very day that my mother birthed me, she had chosen me to live life eternal, among the children of the deep blue sea, those who have escaped the chains of slavery to form a world beneath the heavens and the blood-drenched earth where you live.” (Dandicat 27) The male character demanded his freedom by escaping Haiti with the intentions of arriving in Miami, yet he still considered himself to be free as a corpse at the bottom of the ocean, as compared to a citizen of Haiti.

The clearest example of oppression in more recent times is the record of atrocities performed by Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. This man incarcerated tons of Cubans while denying others their basic political freedoms. The reason that this was particularly terrible, is that this occurred while the rest of the world was really starting to open up freedoms to everybody, Castro continued enforcement of his inhumane policies. “As other coutries in the region turned away from authoritarian rule, only Fidel Castro’s Cuba continued to repress virtually all civil and political rights.” (Jose Miguel Vivanco) Some of these repressive policies included surveillance, beatings, and random imprisonment. Just like “Children of the Sea”, many Cubans made makeshift rafts in order to escape the island and hopefully land in America. This was their only way of demanding freedom, knowing that it would not be granted to them by Castro. While some Cubans did make it to America, sadly many perished along the journey.