"Ignorance is Strenght," in favor of who?

I got this book, 1984 by George Orwell, from a friend after we talked about government surveillance, especially after U.S. 9/11 (not mentioning the 9/11s of other countries caused by us). I had heard about this for a while now, but had chosen not to read it until my friend gave me the book after he read a book I asked him to read. Even though this book is a little dry for me, I have managed to get through it almost.

The reason why I bring this book up is because while I was reading it today, I read a few sentences that really stroked me as relevant to my life and the lives of many others. This is the passage:

"The masses never revolt of their own accord, and they never revolt merely because they are oppressed. Indeed, so long as they are not permitted to have standards of comparisons they never become aware that they are oppressed...The problem, that is to say, is educational" (Orwell, 1984).

During a meeting over the weekend (who really likes meetings over the weekend?) I was reminded about how the life I am living today is very similar to that of a slave (this is a stretch, I know) in that I need to seek to be in locations where I can be "free." Frederick Douglass once said, "I didn't know I was a slave until I found out I couldn't do the things I wanted," which speaks about how I feel as an undocumented student. Also, my life today resembles that of a Jew in Nazi Germany, where I must choose who I tell I am undocumented, make sure I know who knocks on our door, be wary of the neighbors, and even the government. This I know because I a have studied both periods in history, which is different than many I know, as I describe later.

While I was with my family this weekend, we were talking about immigration, which is not a shocker really. But, someone mentioned about their jobs and the kind of work they do. It reminded me about how little possibility they have really to move up social class spectrum (had ladder here, which made me laugh since they actually work with ladders...), which is what many want to do.

Here is my reasoning and how it relates to the aforementioned 1984 quote. I know that I am being oppressed in many ways (and I am doing something about it) and I also know that many of my family and those we know are being oppressed. But, which is different with me, they do not know that the jobs they hold is really due to oppression. They think that because they did not go to school or become specialized in something, they cannot get a better job. And even going to school is not feasible for them; they have to work to sustain families, and so forth.

Moreover, they do not know the history of oppression, at least in our country. I asked some people I know if they knew about the grape strike, segregation, the Holocaust, or the genocide of Natives in the Americas. No one really knew what I was talking about. Some hardly knew who Martin Luther King, Jr., Cesar Chavez, or even who Gandhi is. They've heard about segregation, but do not really know what that means.

In reality, they are stock in the same low-income, low-skilled jobs and in neighborhoods that are decaying day by day. They have no knowledge of what oppression has been for others to what they are living and how their stories are so intertwined, how they are being oppressed day by day. It is a sad realization.

However, in the past year I have seen something new--they are learning what their rights are. Knowing our rights, limited of course, at least allows us all to be treated with some dignity although I have heard stories where that has not been the case. Immigrant rights advocates, at least those who actually care about the people and not just their organizations, are part of this change. And this change will help us all come together and "revolt" (nonviolently) or, as Douglass puts it, "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."

Therefore we must demand, so that we might one day come out of the shadows. We, immigrants and allies, showed our power in 2006 when more than 40,000 people in Minnesota joined to march against draconian proposals in Washington, D.C. We succeeded that time, and I know that as we all become more educated and learn that our oppression cannot outlast our will to a better future, we will succeed again.

"Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe." Frederick Douglass

- The Honorable P