"Oppression = Prejudice + Power": Random Thoughts Inspired by Crip Dyke
See https://freethoughtblogs.com/pervertjustice/2018/09/10/we-dont-know-what-sexism-is/. Taking, for example
Racism = Racial Prejudice + Enhanced Power of one race relative to another
- What's the context for calculations of "Enhanced power"? Locally, nationally, globally?
- Getting into discussions about "what racism really is" obscures the issue.
- Surely acting on racial prejudice is definitionally bad, yes?
- Prejudice leads to discrimination, or so the Google tells me.
- Discrimination is bad because
- "Ah-hah", says the interlocutor, "in order to do any of those things you must have power!"
- "Yes!" says I, but the relevant power differential to consider is that which exists between the parties in the transaction.
- Clearly the races of the participants play a part, but aren't anywhere near the whole story.
- When my jerk-ass First Nations boss gives me shitty shifts because he hates black people I've still been wronged, even if indigenous peoples have relatively less power when considered in any scope.
- Given the above, it's far from clear that the formulation "Racism = Racial Prejudice + Enhanced Power of one race relative to another" actually gets us anywhere.
- Aforementioned jerk-ass boss isn't engaging in "racism" by this definition.
- Presumably this type of behavior is important enough that it deserves its own term; what word do you use for "someone who acts out of racial prejudice"?
- Also, I'm personally appalled by the formulation, since it sees participants in the exchange only in terms of their group membership; it fundamentally denies their individual personhood.
- I think you can raise similar objections to any variant of "Oppression = Prejudice + Power".
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