“Any situation in which ‘A’ objectively exploits ‘B’ or hinders his and her pursuit of self-affirmation as a responsible person is . . . one of oppression. Such a situation in itself constitutes violence, even when sweetened by false generosity, because it interferes with the individual’s ontological and historical vocation to be more fully human.”

A profound sense of human dignity and devotion to the cause of social justice marks Freire’s career as an educator. His definition of oppression is applicable to racial, sexual, ethnic, religious, economic, political, cultural, and other forms of oppression. Freire distinguishes between genuine humanism, on the one hand, and humanitarianism, on the other. Humanitarianism is often a veiled form of oppression since it tends to perpetuate oppressive conditions. Given that our vocation as humans is to become more fully human, humanistic education must organize itself, self-critically, toward that goal while avoiding the paternalism and “false generosity” that often undermine humanitarianism.

This, then, is the great humanistic and historical task of the oppressed: to liberate themselves and their oppressors as well.

Freire sees the human struggle for liberation as the great moral challenge of our era. The oppressed must not only win their freedom, but in doing so, overthrow the socioeconomic and ideological structures of oppression that dehumanize both parties living within it. Just as the aspirations and self-affirmation of the oppressed are denied by the oppressor, the oppressor is dehumanized because he dehumanizes others. Only when the revolutionary struggle dismantles the entire structure of oppression will the “contradiction,” as Freire terms it, of oppressor and oppressed be superseded by the humanization of all people.