Individuals' empowerment comes through community and happens most easily and effectively when it is supported and nurtured by group energy. Liberation is the undoing of the effects of internalized oppression. The achievement of human liberation on a global scale will require far-reaching changes at the institutional, group, and individual level. These changes will involve transforming or unlearning oppressive behavioral patterns and attitudes. Each group targeted by oppression inevitably internalizes the mistreatment and the misinformation about itself.
Internalized oppression is always an involuntary reaction to the experience of oppression.
The target group so often hears misinformation and observes or experiences mistreatment that members become convinced of the legitimacy. This misbelieving expresses itself in behavior and interactions between individual members of the target group which repeat the content of their oppression. Tell the truth. Any situation in which a person prevents others from engaging in a process of inquiry or alienates one from his or her own decision-making or truths is violence. We are all connected.