From where I'm standing, I sure have too. Thanks for the term. *goes to google* That describes part of what I'm talking about. But I don't want to write off each group's defensiveness as *only* enforcing the dominant system of discrimination or as doing the dominant culture's work for them every time. It's there, maybe always there, but it's only part of the story.

There are many reasons for why a member of one group may say "back off" or "keep away" to a member of another group and dispute the overlaps and multiple memberships, and see them as encroachments, and sometimes good reason to give way and give room for this. I think there's more need for "horizontal breathing room", one that we can't afford to give to the dominant culture without losing ground, but should extend to where our marginalized differences meet to allow each other to find a corner for time outs so when we come back together we can extend the benefit of the doubt to each other and leave the oppression olympics back in the corner where it belongs, and the people who do need to stay in the corners can stay there and recharge.