Oppressed people must fight as full human beings, not become objects first

Evidence

The oppressed, who have been shaped by the death-affirming climate of oppression, must find through their struggle the way to life-affirming humanization, which does not lie simply in having more to eat (although it does involve having more to eat and cannot fail to include this aspect). The oppressed have been destroyed precisely because their situation has reduced them to things. In order to regain their humanity they must cease to be things and fight as men and women. This is a radical requirement. They cannot enter the struggle as objects in order later to become human beings. — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 174

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies that humanization includes material needs but is not reducible to them.
• XREF: connects to: Liberation requires the oppressed to critically reflect on power before acting — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 111