Two important definitions

It struck me that I should probably explain two rather important words which form the basis for many ‘issue’ discussions: Privilege and intersectionality.

Especially the first one is vital – if one doesn’t understand privilege, how can one understand the mechanisms of oppression, prejudice and marginalization in all their different forms (racism, sexism, disablism, homophobia, transphobia, etc.)? But intersectionality is also rather important, not just to understand that people can be part of several marginalized groups at once, but that it’s also possible to be disadvantaged in certain areas while still discriminating or holding privilege against others. In discussions with friends, that often where I run into a wall: a poor white person might be economically disadvantaged in comparison to a rich person of colour, but they still have the advantages that come of having white skin.

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