oppress

In 2022, the Southern Poverty Law Center considered these groups to be extremist, “constantly painting themselves as an oppressed class, while vilifying those discriminated against,” it said.

They believe they are entitled to control public opinion, or they are being oppressed.

But the turbulent charge of Leroy’s voice and body language serves another purpose: keeping the character’s history as an oppressed Black man cruelly cut off from his soulmate ever in sight.

His cries of “law and order” are a centuries-old white racist siren — and a justification for oppressing and taking away the rights and freedoms of Black Americans and other non-whites.

Gray calls this attitude part of “conspicuous resilience,” conflating being temporarily displaced and inconvenienced with being oppressed and vulnerable, leading to the celebration and glorification of a recovery that mostly benefits the few.