Age-Centered Racism: An Emergent Framework for Considering How Ageism and Racism Intersect

This article proposes the concept of age-centered racism as an intersectional framework for better capturing the nuances characterizing how racism and ageism in the United States operate and interlock. I argue that age-centered racism occurs when people draw upon stereotypes and assumptions rooted in ageist ideologies without acknowledging how race is entrenched in and central to problematic, prejudicial statements about racial minorities. The effectiveness of naming Black feminism and gendered racism as conceptual and analytical approaches for framing intersectional oppression demonstrates the potential and urgency in explicitly identifying intersectional oppressions. This article aims to push conversations forward by responding to the following questions: How can we better study perceived age of people of color in the US and its role in how oppression is experienced, rather than focusing solely on chronological age? What are the applications of age-centered racism in studying lived experiences within institutional contexts throughout the United States and other countries with similar stratification systems?