Identity

Teachers and social workers are society's triage for systemic issues. They teach us to look for and report the symptoms but refuse to address the root of the problem. Instead of dealing poverty, domestic violence, racism, sexism, ableism etc. they give teachers professional development on trauma informed practice so we can quietly bandage the bruises left from capitalism and white supremacy.

We treat oppression as if certain categories as more acceptable than others. Why is it ok to be a misogynist but you’re in outrage when someone is racist. They are both forms of oppression that negatively impact human experience in this world. Dismantle both.

This is what we mean when we talk about intersectionality. As a black woman you can’t make me choose between my identities because all of my identities make me who I am. If you negate the experience of one you negate the totality of my experience.

And this is what people with disabilities have been trying to get us to understand. As an able bodied person when you discredit their experience you essentially diminish their existence and their right to exist at the intersection of all of their identities.

It’s their right to identify outside of your discomfort simply because you don’t understand it haven’t lived their experience.