Either/Or Thinking part 3

I have to say thinking about either/or thinking has been interesting. It is so prevalent and normalized! Take for instance the way we process multiple oppressions. Kimberle Crenshaw introduced the term intersectionality to help think about the both/and nature of oppression. However, people have distorted it to mean the existence of multiple identities and ignore the whole oppression part. It’s things like the overlap of racism and sexism that intersectionality is addressing.

Now, as I thought about either/or thinking, I started to realize how often when trying to address one type of oppression, people say. “What about another type of oppression?” And so begins the oppression Olympics, where instead of talking about the intersection of oppression, and the shared root of oppression, we get our measuring sticks out to say my oppression is worse than your oppression. Then someone that has bad things occur to them equates their experience of oppression and everyone gets mad.

Whether we are talking about race, gender, class, or other identities, forms of systemic oppression exist in our society which means we have to address them with both/and mindset and not a competition or means of comparison. We all want to live our lives being treated with dignity and respect.