If you’re a woman, you’re more victimized and oppressed than a man. If you’re a Black man, you’re more oppressed than a white one, but possibly less privileged than a white woman.
If you’re an immigrant with a certain type of accent, you’re less privileged than someone with a different kind of accept. But if you’re a millionaire and an immigrant with an accent and a certain shade of skin color, you’re hard to place.
If you’re a trans woman, you’re more oppressed than a trans man, because passing for a man is a privilege. But if you’re a Black trans woman, you’re the most oppressed.
Forgive me if the math gets a little confusing.
But one has to wonder why we might bother evaluating the levels of victimhood or oppression in the first place? Does it help solve them?
Now, I’m not going to deny that we’re not all playing with loaded dice. Some of us are wealthier. Some of us are healthier. Some of us do indeed face more discrimination. That’s the reality of the world. While we should strive to live in a “colorblind” society, we clearly do not. While people shouldn’t be discriminated against based on their gender or sexuality, they clearly are. Frankly, while the problem is getting less significant in some parts of the world, I’m not convinced that it will ever fully disappear. Even if we all one day look exactly the same and be one gender, we’ll still find ways to divide ourselves and pit ourselves against each other. Such is the nature of humanity.
But, I have to ask, what problems are we solving by comparing each other’s suffering or challenges? Why isn’t it just enough to acknowledge them and seek to address them through education, empathy, laws, and so on?
What is the precise benefit of saying that one group or individual suffers less or more than the one next to them?
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