Oppression Revisited

Well, I was basically just as confused after ending our class' second oppression discussion on Tuesday. I just keep blurring the lines between discrimination and oppression and, come to think of it, don't know if I can really find a definition of oppression that I'm 100% comfortable with. I know that oppression can cause mental, psychological, physical, etc. harm and that individuals who are oppressed experience oppression because they belong to a larger group that is oppressed. Oppressors usually benefit at the expense of the oppressed because they gain power by restricting others' options and privileges.
The poems were a nice way to revisit the issue of oppression...it was a breath of fresh air compared to the readings and presentations we've had lately. All of the poems were very powerful in my opinion and helped to express oppression at an individual level  (even though we talked about, and I might have even agreed with the idea, that oppression cannot happen to the individual). I think I misunderstood that, though, because oppression obviously affects the individual, but only because that specific, oppressed individual belongs to a larger group that is oppressed.
The Bridge Poem was the poem to which I most related...even though I'm White, I could really empathize with Donna Kate Rushin because she wrote about how sick she gets of having to worry about pleasing everyone, especially when it comes to her friends and loved ones of different races. I don't have many minority friends, most likely as a product of growing up and continuing to live and study in Huntingdon, but I also feel the pressure as a "bridge" between my friends from different realms of my life. When, for example, my friends from high school come back from their distant colleges and universities and want to catch up, I feel like I should invite my current friends from Juniata. It gets so sticky, though, because my Juniata friends and my high school friends are just different people and know different Hannahs. So I feel this pressure to relate them to each other and entertain and prevent awkward silences and it just gets so damn overwhelming! I don't think this is oppression because it's just something about my personality that gets me anxious and overwhelmed about my different realm friends.
I thought Rushin's last stanza was the most inspirational: "I must be the bridge to nowhere/ But my true self/ And then/ I will be useful"
I feel kind of stupid relating my previously-mentioned experience to Rushin's clearly more dire situation...I think she has a harder struggle for sure.
Also during this class discussion, I kept feeling really uneasy because it struck me that I could actually be (and am most likely) oppressing someone. I really don't want to do that, but (and though it might sound selfish) I don't want to be oppressed either.
I'll snap my fingers and just get rid of oppression/oppressors altogether.

(snap).