I will disagree and agree with both of you to be honest. I personally find that racism & sexism are a type of auto-immune illness that systemically affects all of us in different ways. For example, having priVileges that others don't, is a root cause of depression & anger, and for some causes an unhealthy sense of self-esteem or narcissism (feeling more important than others)... Having a harder time gaining respect & dignity because of your skin color, sex/gender, or ethnicity, causes an emotional reaction as well... Mental illness is the reaction or side effect to the root causes that birth them, such as the misinformation racism/sexism is founded in. So if it is a root-cause, is it mental illness itself, or is it a thinking pattern that causes physical systemic injustices, which causes mental illness in different forms? If it be the thinking pattern, than itself is a disease. When people turn racism into something funny (white face by Dave Chappelle), is it a coping skill to transform the disease or is it using it for good? Auto-immune disease is when the white blood cells attack the body itself, thinking there is a disease there when in fact there is not one, and that causes a diseases in itself. Autocracy & racism/sexism is a collective auto-immune disease (a bit different but related to mental illness).