http://coffeeandgender.blogspot.com/2008/09/all-around-blogosphere.html

1. Hierarchical systems of oppression are set up to create antagonism among those who are oppressed. The reason hierarchies work despite their being very few people at the top of the system of control is that each “layer” of the hierarchy subjugates the one beneath it and this keeps folks from uniting against the tip of the pyramid. When we talk about trying to avoid the “oppression olympics” we are talking about trying to resist the temptation to buy in to the hierarchy of oppression, and the antagonism it creates. When we make these kinds of comparisons, we are helping that hierarchy sustain itself. We can only defy this system by recognizing that the hierarchy is set up to keep us all busy with infighting, thus ignoring the real oppressors.

2. Despite #1, it does seem true that arguments can only be made by analogy. When trying to explain a new idea to someone, you have to relate that idea to something they are already familiar with. Our understanding of concepts are ALWAYS relational. When I was trying to explain what was wrong with Tropic Thunder to members of the LP community, someone brought up that the word “retard” was a scientific word that could be used to describe biological plant growth or non-flammable clothing that firefighters wear. I found that, to explain the harm of the R word to this person, I had to draw comparisons to words he already was sensitive to. For example, I pointed out that the word “midget” can refer to anything from a type of submarine to a breed of turkey. In other words, despite having multiple meanings, a word can be very hurtful when it is hurled out into the public space to deliberately humiliate a particular group. To be sure, I wasn’t suggesting that we had done all the work that needed to be done to in regard to the M word, but merely trying to explain to this person why the R word hurts by relating it to a set of ideas he already understood. We can never define any concept except by using other concepts. Of course, while doing this, we need to be aware of the issues raised in this blog and try as hard as we can to recognize our own privalege and not fall into the self-defeating trap of my point #1.

Yeah. I think it’s important to speak out against all oppressions, and I think a lot of them have many things in common. And that discussions of them can link them together much more often than they do.

I think the r-word and the n-word are equally offensive and hateful. (Also, people with dwarfism say the word “midget” is as hateful as the n-word, too). I just don’t think it’s a good idea to use that to imply that ableism is “worse than”/more of a problem/”more acceptable” than racism.

I have known too many people – anarchists, socialists, radicals of all kinds – for whom disability literally was the “last acceptable prejudice”. People who were completely opposed to any kind of discrimination based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, but who literally did think of disabled people as “naturally inferior” (and often used implicitly disablist arguments in their anti-racism, anti-sexism, etc – eg. “women’s/black people’s IQ is just the same as men’s/white people’s”, without questioning that *of course* a person with a higher IQ is worth more than a person with a lower one…) – who just didn’t get the social model of disability, who didn’t even question the “positiveness” of nursing homes (and in fact many of whom worked in nursing homes because they thought they were doing socially good work, and would have found it absurd to compare them to concentration camp or prison guards), who thoroughly supported things like the Jerry Lewis telethon, whose attitudes to me changed completely when i “came out” as a mentally impaired person, etc, etc…

I’m not denying that it can go the other way as well – i’ve met racist and sexist disability activists, too – but i think that there is a material difference between recognising something as a problem but not doing anything to fix it, and not even recognising it as a problem – and i think disablism is so deeply ingrained into our society, our language, our mental terms of reference, that many of even those who care about, and actively fight against, other oppressions don’t even recognise it as a problem…

i dunno. that’s born of very many frustrated conversations on my part… i mean, i do think “Oppression Olympics” is completely and utterly unhelpful to anyone, and i think this sort of thing falls very, very easily into that – and, if there’s one thing i really, really passionately believe in, it’s that ALL oppressed groups in society need to ally and have solidarity with each other (and that’s why we need a *fully inclusive* politics of diversity)… which doesn’t mean that the issues faced by all oppressed groups are identical, or that things can be translated perfectly and completely from one to another – but we all need to recognise that this is all of our fight… perhaps i’ve just met too many people who seem to get that about every oppression *but* disability…

i dunno, i’m having trouble with words and making my words look like my actual feelings… i hope i’m making some sort of sense, and not *endorsing* the “last acceptable prejudice” view… ultimately, it’s the same shitstem that divides and rules all of us, and possibly this sort of shit is just another of the ways that it does it…

sorry for rambliness…