Privilege, power, and systemic oppression. We have come up with a system that favors a privileged minority and ignores the needs of over 90 percent of the population. Aurélie Salvaire, a diversity and inclusion expert, explains these concepts and encourages us to organise ourselves, raise our voices and create a new world. A world in which all voices are heard.

Systemic oppression is the mistreatment of a certain group of people based on stereotypes, based on biases people may have, and are completely enforced by the system itself. So, it’s not only something that happens at an individual level, but all institutions, everything around us, is actually contributing to this same oppression.

Power is often seen as something quite negative because we currently live in a capitalist patriarchal system where only a few hold the power. It’s very hierarchical, like a pyramid where if you have all the privileges, you are at the top and the majority works for them. We imagine power in this system’s framework. We imagine that power is authoritative, it’s top down, it’s power ‘over’ someone/something, it’s this idea of imposition authority and people kind of reject it especially people from oppressed groups. They think, “I don’t know if I want power! because they don’t want to convert themselves into the oppressor.

However, the word power comes from ‘podere’, from Latin meaning ‘to be able to’. It’s just an ability. Power it’s like money. It’s not good or bad. It depends on what you do with it.