...and also, (surprise!) it's kinda helpful not to use the idea of a hierarchy to keep oneself from examining a system where one has privilege.
There is a lively debate going on at blac(k)ademic about a comment she's encountered (and I've heard it, many times) saying that "Gender trumps race." Another way to say this is that "women as a whole are oppressed across color lines, and so the fight to end sexism is more important than the fight to end racism."
Woh. I can see how people would get there, but I have deep problems with that sentiment. Especially when voiced by white women. We are essentially saying that the system that gives us power (racism) isn't as important to us to fight as the system that oppresses us (sexism).
Convenient, eh? Not surprisingly, this idea was the source of a decades-old schism in the American feminist movement.
It is my firm belief that I get nowhere fighting oppression unless I am able to acknowlege the privilege that I have, sitting side by side with my oppressions. I need to own and examine all of my identities, target and agent.
Here is the comment I made in response to Nubian's critiqe of that idea. Warning: expletives.
Excellent post, Nubian.
My thoughts….In my work, I used to describe a hierarchy of oppression, but in the opposite direction: it’s been clear to me that as a white, bisexual, disabled, Jewish, American Citizen, upper class woman, my race and class have powerfully protected me from much of the oppression that I face through other aspects of my identity. So I felt for a long time that racism actually was the most powerful oppression that existed in my world, and that I would do well to prioritize fighting racism over fighting other oppressions.
These days I see things as more complicated. It’s kind of a both/and situation. BOTH I need to acknowledge that my race and class privilege are very, very powerful, & I need to make sure that I keep fighting to tear down those systems of privilege and that I do not become complacent, AND I see that all of the systems of power and oppression in this society can kill and are grievously hurting people. All of us.
The shit I face as a woman, and as a queer woman, sucks, and I’m only just starting to really see it. (A very painful process.) But the shit that white women give communities of color when we claim “race work needs to wait until gender work is finished” (which is what I read in “gender trumps race”, let me know if I’m misinterpreting) only serves to derail our activism. It perpetuates the system that is killing us all.
Everybody’s work needs to happen. No one is free when others are oppressed. Hey…haven’t I heard that one before?
Yeah.
...from NPR to