Humility and oppressive structural power - a critique

To date, a majority of the research around the concept of humility has been focused on the per­sonal psychology of humility with little attention given to the dynamics of humility in the face of oppressive structural power.

The question than arises, what is the place of humility in the face of oppressive power; whether direct or structural? On a surface level, it seems that humility would be susceptible to being ‘taken advantage of', or being more easily manipulated and violated. Many might think that when confronted with direct or structural violence, humility has little to offer and would likely fold or capitulate. In other words, by its very nature humility might appear to prefer to avoid or accommodate oppression, as opposed to confront it. And often when oppressed people are told to show more humility what is required of them is self-abasement. For example, patriarchy attempts to maintain its dominance through the enforcement of gendered norms of modesty and femininity. These arguments could cause some people to dismiss humility as having little value in resisting and changing structural harms. However, as outlined in the below section on ‘Recommendations for Future Research', this essay would argue otherwise.

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