Last weekend, I had the pleasure of attending the Facing Race Conference hosted by  the Applied Research Center in Oakland, California. Part of the purpose of the conference, as outlined by ARC's website, was to "cut across the color line, claim this moving moment, and gather people of different races from across the country to discuss a myriad of issues and to outline a vision for the future of racial justice."

One of my fellow participants made the comment, "Isn't it interesting how we're at a Facing Race Conference, and have yet to talk about race?" I continued to converse with him to try to understand where he was coming from since the plenary sessions and workshops I attended, from my perspective, seemed to have addressed race. Then again, perhaps that's the difference: my perspective.

I began to see where my newfound friend was coming from as discussions around race and racism in California are not necessarily the same kind of conversations that are taking place in Florida, Ohio, or Virginia. In California, my colleagues and I may be talking about the lack of disaggregated data on Asian/Pacific Islander representation in higher education, whereas greater concerns in other states might be around voter intimidation/fraud and police brutality in low-income communities of color (not to mislead the reader by saying that these issues are non-existent in California, because they are very much present in my Golden State's backyard).

Thus, given the spectrum of interpretations and experiences of the participants on the issues of race/racism, perhaps it would be useful to at least acknowledge these variations and be reminded, just for safekeeping, not to fall in the trap of the Oppression Olympics.

In the name of love for social justice, as a leader, contributor, and beneficiary of the Progressive Movement, I must call out the Oppression Olympics. Even the most well-intentioned people in the Movement, including myself, may actually be contributing to the oppression of others, both on the individual and systemic levels, in the process of trying to alleviate our own oppressed state.

I am in no way defending the argument that the African American community of California was responsible for the success of Proposition 8 in banning gay marriage, which has already been proven to be statistically inaccurate. Instead, I am highlighting the charge proposed throughout the Facing Race conference, to understand race/racism within the context of other forms of oppression i.e. sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, xenophobia.

How can we, for example, begin to understand that the work around increasing business investment in inner-cities can be done in collaboration with efforts to achieve immigrant rights, as both endeavors have a moral and economic justification? How do we move beyond the Oppression Olympics, and recognize our own oppressor hats, without oversimplifying or neglecting the unique needs of each identity?