Each of us has a countless identity from our gender, class, race, sexuality, etc. These identities shape our experiences in life and our interactions with the world around us. The term intersectionality was first use by a race theorist by the name of Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989. She uses this term to express how our experience with both race and gender intertwine to impact the lives of many black women and woman of color. This theory seeks to give us an understanding of how ones’ social and political identities (e.g., gender, race, class, sexuality, disability, etc.) might combine to create unique modes of discrimination.
“Many of our social justice problems like sexism and racism are often overlapping creating multiple levels of social injustice”. I agree with this statement made by Crenshaw. The black lives matter movement was founded by a black woman yet the fight for black lives doesn’t include black women. In the TED talk, Crenshaw talks about how there is a outcry, protest, etc. when a black woman is killed by when a black man is killed the reactions are quite opposite. This is wrong and very unfair to black women. She a lot mention that we remember the name of black men killed by the police, yet we are completely oblivious to the names of black women killed by the police. This is the perfect example of when intersectionality seeks to eliminate. Nobody march for the black women when they are killed, raped, denied work and equal pay etc. Intersectionality is the belief that all our social justice movement MUST consider all of the different intersections of identity, privilege and oppression that people face in order to be unbiased and effective.
Intersectionality makes our system more effective and fairer yet many of our social justice movement have been very slow to accept this concept because it highlights individual’s privilege. Because the need of the most privileged are usually the one that are prioritized, they are the one considers when discussing solutions to oppression and inequality. Which then leaves the underprivileged group behind. People don’t like to recognize way in which they may be privileged over another but to accept and embrace Intersectionality, we must identify ways in which we are privileged, embrace the knowledge of our advantages and being to recognize that our advantages sometimes keep us from seeing the disadvantages other people are facing.
Social justice movement might argue that intersectionality slows down things because when you only consider the needs of a selected group, it’s a lot easier to “see” progress than it is when you consider the needs of different diverse groups of people. Intersectionality address the needs of everyone rather than the needs of the majority. Not because one will benefit from a movement, we should then allow another to suffer. Intersectionality strives to ensure that fewer people are left behind. Intersectionality is very important in our fight against racism and other oppressions. It deals with all aspect of our lives and not just social movements. Everything we do can be more inclusive with intersectionality. Social justice movement must consider the ways in which our identities interact /intersect.
Questions
- Who are the people most impacted by the intersectionality? Are there subgroups and identities within this larger group that go or have gone unnoticed?
- How does your future profession impact intersectionality?
- What, if any, are the recent policies, movements, or laws in place that cause or worsen the rights violations/block intersectionality of a different diverse group(s)?
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Hi Roshawna, I love that your post is about intersectionality. Strangely enough, the first time I had even heard of it was within a philosophy course here in Cortland. Within the introductory essay by Nancy K.Bereano in Sister Outsider she highlights intersectionality by saying, “Some problems we share as women, some we do not. You fear your children will grow up to join the patriarchy and testify against you; we fear our children will be dragged from a car and shot down in the street, and you will turn your backs upon the reasons they are dying. ” (p.9). She is highlighting how a white woman fears being discriminated against because of gender, whilst black women fear discrimination of gender and race. This overlapping problem is an unfortunately perfect scenario to showcase the difference displayed through intersectionality.
Hey Roshawna,
I think intersectionality is such an important concept in American society and should be taught to everyone at a high-school level. Intersectionality affects everyone, for better or worse. This is since we live in, ““structures defined by profit, by linear power, by institutional dehumanization, (Lorde, Sister Outsider). ” These structures dominate every aspect of our lives. Our society enforces the qualities of being white, male, and heterosexual. This puts everyone else at a severe disadvantage. I believe those who are most negatively impacted by intersectionality are black females who are members of the LGBTQIA community. They are forced to face oppression in various facets of their life and are overall viewed as taboo by mainstream society. I believe the ideal conditions for society would be an egalitarian, sexually open view as opposed to the christian ideals we perpetuate.
Excerpt From: Audre Lorde. “Sister Outsider.” iBooks. https://books.apple.com/us/book/sister-outsider/id488573027
Hey Roshawna, i’m so happy that you decided to focus on intersectionality in your blog post! I actually learned about this last semester in Professor Savonick’s course, Digital Divides, and I was fascinated with Kimberlé Crenshaw’s purpose behind the new term. Throughout the semester, you will probably notice that the topic of intersectionality will be mentioned in most of the pieces that we read. For example, the idea of intersectionality made an appearance in Barbara Smith’s essay, “Toward a Black Feminist Criticism,” when she states: “A Black feminist approach to literature that embodies the realization that the politics of sex as well as the politics of race and class are crucially interlocking factors in the works of Black women writers is an absolute necessity.” Smith utilizes Crenshaw’s term to express that Black lesbian women have suffered the most when it comes to the growth of feminist writing because their identities of being both a woman and part of the LGBTQ+ community aren’t as accepted or noticed within society.
I noticed that you mentioned Crenshaw’s interaction with the audience and after watching the TED talk for a number of times now, that’s one part that I find the most effective and empowering. I thought Crenshaw’s technique of showing how intersectionality is connected to the Black Lives Matter Movement was very clever. She clearly shows the audience that we know the names of Black men who were victims of police brutality, but we aren’t familiar with the Black women who were also victims. Why? Because these women are being discriminated against due to their gender and race, which are two identities that are sadly frowned upon by society’s dominant group of white males.
Hey Roshawna, I think your blog post is really thorough and emphasizes the importance of why we need to push for intersectionality to be recognized. To answer your first question, I think any marginalized group who experience sexism or homophobia coupled with racism are the most impacted by intersectionality. In cases of identity politics and intersectionality we certainly can see the ways trans women, especially trans women of color are treated abhorrently, even by self-identified feminists. As Lorde states in her essay “Age, race, class and sex” there are false conceptions of feminism, “there is a pretense to a homogeneity of experience covered by the word sisterhood that does not in fact exist” (117). Without understanding the experiences of women who are not white, cisgender and straight we have no way of to put up stop signs at these intersections of race, class, gender and identity. I think the most important feminist issue even of our time is dismantling the systems that reinforce these intersections to exist in the first place.
Hi Roshwana, I really like your blog post and I think that it covers a lot of the important points of intersectionality. It is important to remember, like you acknowledged with your quote, that African Americans and women overlap when talking about African American women and their rights. When Kimberlé Crenshaw was talking about Emma DeGraffenreid. Emma DeGraffenreid was denied a job and she believed she did not get the job because she was an African American woman. Crenshaw said that “the judge in question dismissed Emma’s suit and the argument for dismissing the suit was that the employer did hire African-Americans and the employer hired women.” This is the problem with the judicial system and their disregard for intersectionality. The problem wasn’t that the employer hired women and African Americans, the problem was that they did not hire African American women. This exclusively denies their right to the job because of their overlapping race and gender that affect their opportunities. The problem was that white women were being hired and African American men were being hired but African American women were not being hired. This confirms the fact that intersectionality plays a big part in our society and the rights and privileges that come with it.
Hi Roshawna! I like how you focused on intersectionality. This is a very important idea that I don’t think is talked about or focused on much in education. The first time I really got to understand this term was in a class here at Cortland. Once Lorde returned back to her English department that was dominated with mostly white men she says, “I knew, as I had always known, that the only way you can head people off from using who you are against you is to be honest and open first, to talk about yourself before they talk about you” (p 98, Lorde). This quote was very powerful, until you are comfortable with yourself people can take advantage of you. To answer your first question, I think that whoever is not the ‘hierarchy’ is impacted most by intersectionality.
I completely agree with your idea that each of us has had multiple identities due to different perspectives based on race, gender, etc. It is a very intriguing idea and one that in my future profession will be quite important. As I plan to be an educator and teach students I’ll have to be aware of their different identities and the different perspectives that people will have towards each student and why they may give them a certain identity. A quote we both seem to like, “Many of our social justice problems like sexism and racism are often overlapping creating multiple levels of social injustice” is perfect for the views in the education world. For instance many students, often black and in impoverished areas are looked down upon and unfortunately given many less opportunities than their white counterparts, regardless of the white student’s economic situation. In my classroom I hope to avoid the negative aspects like sexism and racism as there is not one that is better than the other and that is something I will heavily advocate in my classroom, that all races, genders, classes are inherently equal even if society is a bit crooked and would prefer the chaos of everyone believing in superiority and inferiority.
Hey Roshawna,
I agree with everything you stated in your blog post, you’ve elaborated your stance very well! I think intersectionality is very important especially where many individuals may categorize themselves, and others must respect those identities. I strive to become an ESL teacher for young students and I would love to implicate intersectionality as much as I can. Through intersectionality, other English speaking students will be able to incorporate and help their fellow classmates with obtaining the ability to learn the English language. With intersectionality, it’s a way for minority individuals to be seen, acknowledged, and respected for each of their differences. Perhaps young students from different cultural backgrounds have different views and norms compared to their American classmates, with intersectionality there will always be room for acceptance and respect. In another aspect, I think we need intersectionality due to Trans Black Women continuously being targeted and murdered through hate crimes. These are women, part of the Trans community, and are black. Intersectionality is a must for our society in order to obtain a safer and more welcoming environment for minority groups.