I was very unclear and left the context implied: I'm not saying race is the dominant factor in all discussions of oppression. Far from it! Just that it's the dominant factor in discussions of race.
And ultimately I believe the more important dialogue is about power and privilege and how they're located, and not about race.
This is a very important discussion. But to tackle the overall power structures it is important to also focus on the individual patterns, and racism is one of those patterns, as are sexism, heterosexism, ablism, classism etc. While these are all faces of the same underlying problem and need to be tackled in a consistent way (not fighting racism by being sexist etc) they do not all work in exactly the same way, and it's important not to elide their differences or you end up silencing individual voices, usually those who are particularly disadvantaged. (This is something feminism does All The Time when it talks about the "universal suffering of women" and only ends up talking about things which affect white straight middle class women etc)
Re: Intersectionality
And ultimately I believe the more important dialogue is about power and privilege and how they're located, and not about race.
This is a very important discussion. But to tackle the overall power structures it is important to also focus on the individual patterns, and racism is one of those patterns, as are sexism, heterosexism, ablism, classism etc. While these are all faces of the same underlying problem and need to be tackled in a consistent way (not fighting racism by being sexist etc) they do not all work in exactly the same way, and it's important not to elide their differences or you end up silencing individual voices, usually those who are particularly disadvantaged. (This is something feminism does All The Time when it talks about the "universal suffering of women" and only ends up talking about things which affect white straight middle class women etc)