Oppression serves as an overarching term for all forms of injustice. Woke activists want to eliminate all forms of oppression. This goal sounds good, as no one should accept actual injustice.
However, woke activists do not only describe understandable injustice as oppression but especially the effects of ominous power structures. These power structures (especially racism, sexism, colonialism, Eurocentrism, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, capitalism, and environmental destruction) allegedly affect supposed minorities particularly strongly: BIPOCs, LGBTQ*, FINTA, disabled people, as well as people from non-Western cultures.442 Allegedly, the government is obliged to regulate society so strongly that no oppression can exist anymore (see Rights).
Oppression forms the reverse side of dominance: dominant groups are able to gain greater access to power and resources through their privileges. White cis men are considered particularly privileged.443
Being aware of the diverse forms of oppression is extremely complicated: oppression is perceptible even for oppressed people only with sufficient consciousness.444 Woke theorists strive to make the alleged oppression visible in order to combat the systemic power structures (see Critical Pedagogy, Forms of Knowledge, and Conflict).445 To this end, one is to consider the current state of research from critical theories, as allegedly only experts can correctly analyse the complex social dynamics (“Trust the science!”). For orientation, a simple rule of thumb suffices: inequalities to the disadvantage of more marginalised persons are a priori regarded as evidence of oppression.446