1Indah Faramadita Fitri | 2Titien Diah Soelistyarini
1,2Airlangga University
Abstract
Racial oppression has denied and subjugated minorities including African Americans in the United States for so long. Yet, this oppression continues to happen up to the present in a form of institutionalized oppression, which allows government and other institutions to favor a certain group of people based on the group identity. Since all major institutions in the United States are controlled by the whites, African Americans are looked at and treated differently that eventually result in discriminatory practices in various aspects of their life. Accordingly, this paper aims at addressing the issue of institutionalized oppression towards African Americans in Jesmyn Ward’s novel Sing, Unburied, Sing, which narrates the life of African Americans in legal segregation and contemporary era. The novel analysis is focused on four African American characters, namely River, Richie, Given, and Jojo who are oppressed and physically tortured by white Americans. Employing qualitative descriptive method, this study applies three out of six key features of Feagin’s Systemic Racism. The finding reveals that institutionalized oppression as portrayed in the novel still occurs in the present days due to power inequality between African Americans and white Americans. Even though oppression may come in different forms in different era, as long as the whites dominantly rule major institutions in American society, African Americans still have to endure continuous suffering both physically and mentally. Only through constant struggle, African Americans can challenge the prevailing racial hierarchy and stand for equality of rights.
Keywords: African American; discrimination; institutionalized oppression; racial inequality; systemic racism
