What We Mean By ‘Oppression Olympics’

Everyone should be able to share their lived experiences, if they decide to…but don’t weaponize it in a deceitful way!

Photo by Nicolas Hoizey on Unsplash

It’s a term used when there’s a mad scramble to make one’s voice heard over a stadium full of roars in favor of social justice. Black people bring up racism. Women bring up sexism. Gay people bring up orientationism. Trans people bring up genderism. People with mental health challenges or physical handicaps bring up ableism. Folks who’ve lived in poverty bring up classism.

And wealthy, able-bodied, neurotypical, heterosexual, cisgender White men are told to shut up altogether.

This is what happens when cultural, interpersonal, and systemic hardships collide. None of us have been given any handbook of absolutism for functioning as “allies” in those scenarios.

“Oppression Olympics.” Many of us warn society against getting bogged down in it.

And the hyperwoke Greek chorus scoffs at us, collectively.

Defining the Term

Crediting community organizer Elizabeth Martínez with coining the term, Tashi Copeland describes the concept of “Oppression Olympics” as follows:

…the idea that marginalization is a…