You Cast a Shadow Too

We need to work harder to end oppression, and recognise our part in it.

If you’re a guy and you don’t spend every moment considering your actions in the light of our patriarchal society’s attitudes towards gender, then there is not equality — because people who aren’t men have to worry about what their gender will make people think of them whenever they interact with society.

If you’re white and you don’t spend every moment considering your actions in the light of a racist culture, then there is not equality — because people of colour all have to spend every moment of their lives being aware of how that culture others them and only accepts them if it assimilates them.

If you’re cisgendered and you don’t spend every moment considering your actions in the light of a culture that enforces the gender binary at every turn, then there is not equality — because trans people’s entire lives are defined by their existence outside of what our culture deems acceptable.

If you are straight and you don’t spend every moment considering your actions in the light of a heteronormative society, then there is not equality — because every LGBTQ+ individual has to spend their days and nights trying to reconcile their feelings with a cultural narrative that has no room for them.

If you are not asexual and don’t spend every moment considering your actions in the light of a romance-focused society, then there is not equality — because every second in the life of an asexual or aromatic individual is spent having to prove that they are still a valid human being.

If you’re able-bodied and don’t spend every moment considering your actions in the light of an ablist culture, then there is not equality — because every disabled person has to face the fact that they don’t measure up to what our society says you have to be in order to deserve to live as a human being.

If you’re neurotypical and you don’t spend every moment considering your actions in the light of a culture that stigmatised mental health, then there is not equality — because every neurodiverse person has to spend their time on this earth debating if their life-threatening problems are even real.

If you are not in poverty and you don’t spend every moment considering your actions in the light of capitalism, then there is not equality — because not only do the poor have to struggle to feed themselves, but they have to do so while being made to feel worthless because of it.

If you want equality, you have to stop the oppressed from having to spend every moment under the shadow of inequality. AND until they are out of that shadow, you have to remember that without as much awareness of it as those who live under it, then you cast that shadow too. You have to make yourself just as aware of your part in the oppression as they are. That will mean realising a lot of unpleasant things along the way, as you look at people like you from the point of view of those oppressed by people like you. You won’t like what you see, and you will come to hate people like you.

It would be too easy to see the people like you and forget what you are looking at. You must remember that when you look at the people like you that you ARE one of them. They are not the “bad ones,” and you’re a “good one.” You are all casting the shadow of oppression, and unless you make it your life’s work to look just as hard at your part in casting that shadow as you do at the part of those around you, then there will never be equality.

If you are not actively fighting to stop oppressing people, then you are oppressing them. Participating in society as it stands is oppressive — only by taking an ongoing, active role in removing oppression can you possibly hope to make a dent in ending that.