Thread by @Dr2NisreenAlwan

1/ Kick-off question from @DJDevakumar in the launch of @TheLancet racism and health series @raceandhealth

What does #racism mean to you?

This made me reflect on my personal definition of racism so here goes 🧵

2/ To me personally I think of #racism as discrimination whether *by thought and/or action* based on skin colour or geographical place or culture or religion or language or social attitudes that never operates in isolation, which brings us to the concept of #intersectionality

3/ Racism is always compounded or diluted by other systems of oppression or privilege like #patriarchy #classism #homophobia.

4/ One of the most challenging questions we can ask ourselves is whether an action towards us was #racist or not. I believe this is at least partly because we try and isolate the effect of our race on the action without accounting for the intersections of how others see us.

5/ I'm many other things besides my race. Without seeing me as a whole rather than a box where identity characteristics are stacked independently of each other, you'll get how racism interacts with other social systems defining my identity to shape my advantage or disadvantage.

6/ That doesn't mean the question of whether one experiences racism is too complicated to answer. It means that you always have to consider the answer in the context of the whole person rather than the isolated trait that is only one dimension of their identity.