Y’all. When Black Panthers were institutionalized for supposed mental illness and chemically restrained and sometimes permanently disabled because institutionalizing them meant they could be locked up forever instead of getting a fair trail was that “just” racism or “just” ableism?

When Black kids get diagnosed with Oppositional Defiance Disorder and any of their complaints or self-advocacy is dismissed as “defiance” and they get the police called on them for being kids is that “just” racism or “just” ableism?

When systemic racism disables racialized people and then systemic racism makes it harder for them to access medical care and disability supports is that “just” racism or “just” just ableism?

When ICE specifically targets racialized people and then denies people access to their life-sustaining medications or denies people they’ve injured access to necessary medical care and that kills people is that “just” racism or “just” ableism?

When police officers kill disabled people of color for being “unpredictable” or “out of control” or “having a weapon” (it doesn’t matter if it was just a butter knife) or for not responding immediately to their instructions (they were deaf and facing the other way) is that “just” racism of “just” ableism?

When racialized person don’t get a job because their cultural dialect or their accent is seen as a lack of intelligence is that “just” racism or “just” ableism?

When Black wheelchair users are assumed to be disabled because they were a gang member, whether or not that’s correct, but either way are denied access to resources they need is that “just” racism or “just” ableism?

When Black people are labeled “drug seeking” and left to suffer horrible pain is that “just” racism or “just” ableism?

When police officers approach a Black mother trying to help her young child through an autistic meltdown, forcing her to have to deal with convincing them she’s not abusive and have to work even harder to help her kid because they can tell something’s wrong, is that “just” racism or “just” ableism?

When Black and brown people join gangs because of systemic racism and are shot in the spine before or during their arrest and once they’re out of jail can’t find an apartment because none of the wheelchair accessible apartments accept people with a criminal record so they have to live in a nursing home and then die because their city sent COVID patients to their nursing home when the hospitals ran out of beds and put people who had tested positive for COVID in the same rooms as them is that “just” racism or “just” ableism?

You’ll notice that some of these examples are about disabled people of color but some of them are not. That’s because ableism can still affect people who are not disabled! And sometimes racism weaponizes ableism!

Racism can and does weaponize other types of oppression to oppress racialized people who would not be targeted by those types of oppression otherwise. It still counts as that other type of oppression!

There are a lot of reasons for this, but a big one is that none of the types of oppression that exist today were created in a vacuum. In fact, many of them only exist the way they do so that they could be weaponized against groups who are not usually thought of as the intended targets of that type of oppression.

And is the narrow definition of “proper English” actually racism, ableism, classism, xenophobia, or imperialism? Is the narrow definition or femininity or womanhood actually misogyny, transphobia, racism, classism, or imperialism? Or is it maybe all of them at once?

This is why intersectionality matters so much.