oppression

I thoght our inclass discussion on oppression last tuesday was very interesting, especially becuase it was somewhat complicated for us to come up with a definition of a word that we're all pretty familiar with. i find this happens a lot with words that we throw around loosely and think we know the meanings of until we actually sit down and begin to pick it apart. The definition we came up with was broad and complex, but seemed to revolve around the notion of one group taking away or limiting another groups agency, independence, freedoms and opportunities. We said the oppression was generally legitimized at a structural level, but subsequently reinforced down throughout the social pyramid at many levels. Our group kicked around the idea of a housewife being oppressed by her overly controlling husband who took away all her freedoms and agency-is this oppression or abuse? We seemed to agree that this was isolated abuse becuase the injustice wasnt being reinforced on a larger scale-not ALL husbands take away their wives independence or freedoms. This narrowed our definition in that oppression pertains to an inherent quality-such as race. But then we also brought up the issue of poverty and innercity schools. If children in those schools don't have good tests grades, simply because they were'nt given the OPPORTUNITY to get good grades, then they won't make the grade for colleges-hence affirmatie action. we also talked about that when those students who didnt necessarily have good grades in bad highschools went to good colleges,. they excelled just as well as students who got good grades in highschools. so affirmative action in a sense tries to combat the oppression by creating quotas. But is it oppression really? granted kids don't have the same opportunities, but is it  oppression because its based on socioeconomic status and location instead of a matter of identity? or is the definition of oppression based more on the structural component-which means that this is a perfect example of oppression ebcause the system limits and inhibits their opportunities.