Apartheid, Ghetto, Occupation, Segregation: How to Oppress an Underdog

Hi there.

This thread is to gather ideas on apartheid, suppression, oppression, segregation, occupation, slavery, ghettoes, and all the many charming ways in which the authorities, the powers that be, and society, can make a protagonist's life a living Hell.

I'm especially interested in gathering examples from Real Life from which to take inspiration. I want the real nasty stuff, the stuff that just screams 'unfair!', the stuff that's stranger than fiction in its banal, systematic cruelty.

Let's start with slavery, and we'll work our way up from there, shall we?

How about it? Where does the level of utter misery become sufficiently light to give your character agency, yet also sufficiently heavy to spurn them into desperate action?

Two words: "Stockholm Syndrome". Now imagine it as a way of life, from birth to death. This line of thinking was inspired in me by reading Anne Rice's "Sleeping Beauty" trilogy- those people got into some really nasty mind-screw territory, and the really ironic thing is how clear it is that Rice herself didnt realize it (she clearly thinks it's erotic).