The systematic exploitation of one social group by another for its own benefit. It involves institutional control, ideological domination, and the imposition of the dominant group's culture on the oppressed group. Oppression is different from discrimination, bias, prejudice, or bigotry because:

• It is pervasive – woven throughout social institutions as well as embedded within individual consciousness
• It is restricting – structural limits significantly shape a person's life chances and sense of possibility in ways beyond the individual's control
• It is hierarchical – the dominant or privileged groups benefit, often in unconscious ways, from the disempowerment of subordinated or targeted groups
• The dominant group has the power to define and name reality and determine what is "normal," "real," or "correct".