Among the EDI resources provided by the Vice-President Finance & Operations Portfolio (VPFO) at the University of British Columbia (UBC) is an EDI glossary.
Let’s have a look at the third entry under “A”: Anti-Oppression. Now look under the subheading, Systems of Oppression, second sentence: “All the ‘-isms’ are forms of oppression.”
All the -isms? To test this claim lets start our own glossary of -isms, beginning with A:
A
Activism
Agnosticism
Anarchism
Animism
Antidisestablishmentarianism
Arminianism
Asceticism
Astigmatism
Atheism
Autism
Autosoterism
B
Baptism
Buddhism …
It appears that our erstwhile glossarians ought to weaken the claim that all -isms are forms of oppression. To claim the words on my impromptu -isms glossary are forms of oppression, which one might do with enough mental acrobatics, is to render the concept of oppression useless. But to weaken the claim from all -isms are oppressive to oppressive-isms are oppressive is not only banal but circular.
Resource
EDI Concepts and Definitions, Vice-President Finance & Operations Portfolio (VPFO), The University of British Columbia (UBC), https://vpfo.ubc.ca/edi/edi-resources/edi-glossary/, accessed September 28, 2022.
Keeping An Eye On EDI 