I absolutely think there’s a time and a place to talk about the differences between systematic oppression vs. discrimination vs. prejudice, I just don’t think that when someone is talking about the awful shit they have been through because of some facet of their identity or their life is that time or place.
When someone is discussing their own lived experiences, particularly when they’re bad experiences, and you respond with “lol okay but you’re not oppressed for ___”…what exactly does that accomplish?
Maybe they’re not oppressed for that, maybe what they’re facing is prejudice and discrimination from people because of that prejudice instead, but prejudice and discrimination are still shitty things! They’re still awful to experience! They’re still alienating and abrasive and even violent. And while prejudice against someone because of THIS thing might seem small in the grand scheme of things compared to the oppression someone else faces for THAT thing, to the individual facing that prejudice and facing that discrimination it is still a big fucking deal. It still has a significant impact on their life, it is still detrimental to their quality of life, and those things matter.
A lot of (if not most of) the people who like to pull the “well you’re not oppressed for blah blah blah” card out are doing that to say that those things don’t matter. The prejudice you experience doesn’t matter. The discrimination you experience doesn’t matter. The negative impact it has on you doesn’t matter. It’s all too small to matter and all these other things (the real oppression going on in the world) matter more so shut up about it and deal.
It’s oppression olympics 2.0, it says “other people have it worse than you do so you have no right to complain”, and it’s bullshit.
Also, it seems to me that there is like, some validity catalogue now when it comes to oppression, prejudice etc. As in, if you’re suffering from XYZ kind of prejudice/discrimination, that’s terrible and you’re valid, but if it’s ABC, then you’re just whining and should shut up. And EFG characteristics by default disqualify you from being ‘allowed’ to ever complain about being treated poorly.
Which is all kinds of destructive and does nothing to better society overall.
Arguing whether death by an angry mob is worse than death by a thousand cuts over a prolonged period of time is worse, misses the point that BOTH axis of abuse lead to death and suffering.
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 