The system that causes systemic discrimination against white, mostly european men is not the same system that causes systemic discrimination against minorities and women. Call the one system the e-system (the european male discrimination system), and call the other the mw-system (the minority/women discrimination system) for the sake of this point.
The mw-system has been in place for a very long time. It afffects a very large number of people of all ages and abilities. There is harm that affects people immediately and repeatedly, and also an accumulated harm over a lifetime and even generationally, leaving them to a less favorable starting point. The mw-system includes overt and covert discrimination; it includes discriminatory systems in supporting areas like housing, food and healthcare that exacerbate and magnify the additional systems that affect things like hiring and promotions. It includes systems of ongoing discrimination even after a succesful hiring, like muting and silencing voices in meetings, design and publications.
The e-system is relatively new. Extremely new. It affects far fewer people, and it affects them far fewer times. The mechanisms are not baked into covert magnifiers or proxies that are used for additional discrimination. Moreover, it’s intent is to enable equity, so it has a built-in sunset, and a significant percent of social spaces loudly and proudly do not use it at all.
We watch a group of people argue that fixing the e-system must receive top billing over fixing the mw-system. Indeed, we watch them deny that the mw-system even exists, but that the e-system is widespread and inescapeable. We watch them try to change the discussion at every poosible opportunity to the e-system, and present isolated incidents as widespread issues.
Groups of people have been doing this to maintain unequal power for a very long time, and we can expect them to continue to fight against equity.
