An important aspect of understanding how these cultural elements may impact providing peer support is for certified peer specialists to understand their own views on these topics and their own biases, implicit or otherwise. By continually checking in with themselves regarding bias, certified peer specialists set themselves up to mitigate potential harm they may cause when working with people from different cultures or who hold different values or beliefs. Systemic oppression Systemic oppression, also known as systemic racism, refers to the systems in place that create and maintain racial inequality. VIDEO: “Feeling Critically to Understand Social Justice” – Suthakaran Veerasamy, TEDxUWLaCrosse https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHxUb2oXtEo According to the National Equity Project, the lens of systemic oppression assumes that: • All negative forms of prejudice and/or bias are learned and therefore can be unlearned. • Oppression and injustice are human creations and phenomena, and therefore can be undone. • Systemic oppression exists at the level of institutions (harmful policies and practices) and across structures (education, health, transportation, economy, etc.) that are interconnected and reinforcing over time. • Oppression and systematic mistreatment (such as racism, classism, sexism, or homophobia) is more than just the sum of individual prejudices. • Systemic oppression is systematic and has historical antecedents; it is the intentional disadvantaging of groups of people based on their identity while advantaging members of the dominant group (gender, race, class, sexual orientation, language, etc.). • Systemic oppression manifests in economic, social, political, and cultural systems. • Systemic oppression and its effects can be undone through recognition of inequitable patterns and intentional action to interrupt inequity and create more democratic processes and systems supported by multiethnic, multicultural, and multilingual alliances and partnerships. • Discussing and addressing oppression and bias will usually be accompanied by strong emotions. FURTHER READING: “Healing Ethno-Racial Trauma in Latinx Immigrant
Communities: Cultivating Hope, Resistance, and Action” https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2019-01033-005.html
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