In the article titled “Why Intersectionality Can’t Wait“ Kimberlé Crenshaw writes, “intersectionality has been the banner under which many demands for inclusion have been made, but a term can do no more than those who use it have the power to demand” (Washington Post). In this statement Crenshaw says that intersectionality is a term that has given people who experience overlapping systems of discrimination a platform but it does not eliminate social injustices. Intersectionality is a term Crenshaw coined to describe the multiple injustices people face but she says it does nothing to portect them. In the Ted talk titled “The urgency of intersectionality, Crenshaw explains how the courts ruled that combining the overlapping of injustices of Emma…
Kimberlé Crenshaw, a black scholar, who coined the term “intersectionality” in her essay from 1989, “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics”, in which she attests that black women are the most oppressed people in American society. A black woman might be discriminated in ways that neither fit into legal categories of “sexism” nor “racism”. She explains that sadly the legislation has generally defined sexism constructed on an assumed position to the injustices confronted by all females (including white), while defining racism to advocate to those confronted by all Blacks (including men). This failure within the legislation captures Black…
Kimberle Crenshaw coined the term intersectionality in this very essay. Her usage of the term was in conjunction with Black women in the United States and how they are being oppressed because of their race and gender. Crenshaw focuses on gender and race in this very paper, she argues that race and gender should be looked at as cohesive terms, rather than different frameworks in cases that involve Black women that encounter a combination of sex and racial discrimination. This is looking more beyond than racism and sexism, it is building solidarity between the lines of structural differences. Crenshaw uses the metaphor of traffic intersection and crossroads to better illustrate the meaning of intersectionality.…
Doyle, Jamie Mihoko and Grace Kao. 2007. “Are Racial Identities of Multiracial stable? Changing Self Identification Among Single and Multiple Race Individuals.” Social Psychology Quarterly 70(4):405-423.…
In feminist theory, intersectionality is a theory which describes how women can face multiple intersecting and overlapping systems of oppression such as sex, race and class. These systems deem to focus on the minority and or discriminate against. Each system of oppression is unable to be examined separately because of it’s intersecting and interconnectedness. More over, intersectionality describes the higherarchical nature of power and how belonging to multiple minority or discriminative systems may indicate one’s personal identity will be disregarded in society. That being the case, even though intersectionality is traditionally applied to women, women are not the only one’s oppressed from intersectionality, men are also being affected by such happening of intersecting and interconnectedness. The concept of intersectionality first came into use by the scholar Kimberle Crenshaw, a civil rights advocate.…
Before intersectionality, individuals were forced to assign themselves to only one identity at a time (Phoenix, 2006). As such, a black, Muslim, female with a low socioeconomic status previous to intersectionality would have had to choose one of her identities to associate with- whereas now she would be able to assign herself to each of these identities and present herself as a product of the way they mesh together. Feminist literature describes that whilst most women understood and accepted the dominance approach that describes males’ social power over women, the ‘hegemony of feminisms that is constructed primarily around the lives of white–middle class women’ was rarely discussed before intersectionality (Baca Zinn & Thornton Dill, 1996).…
These are all bound together and inseparable elements. These foundations are largely materialist, describing disadvantaged identities as historically constituted, rather than innate. Focusing exclusively on one dynamic while ignoring the intersections of other structures of disadvantage often produce biased and inaccurate generalizations. Intersectionality recognizes that multiple oppressions are not each suffered separately but rather as a single, synthesized experience. Rather than having any unified canon, this concept draws primarily from direct experiences of the…
Why do men hold higher positions than women? What is Racism? What is the difference between Race and ethnicity? How can social policies improve society? These are frequently asked questions that many people in today’s society would like to have answered. These are also questions that sociologists strive to discover the answer to everyday. Sociology is a science guided by the basic understanding that one’s life is affected by their place in the social world. There are many different characteristics and views about sociology and society. A majority of those issues are brought to light in Dr. Carl’s textbook Think Sociology.…
these two identifications have constructed peoples' lives. From the beginning of modern society, racial inequalities and gender inequalities have consumed American culture. Women who are white and of color have been oppressed for hundreds of years in America. On a structural level, women make less money, are abused more often, and receive less privilege than men (class notes). It has been known that men hold positions of power over women more often than women holding power over men. This is the concept of patriarchy (class notes). Women of color have faced this oppression not only due to their gender but also because of their race. Scientist…
Every society known to man has used either race, class, ethnicity, gender or all of the above to determine placement in civilization. Sometimes one or more of these categories comingle and we characterize this as: intersectionality. Finding the words, however, to define class, race, gender, or intersectionality is not an easy feat.…
It is important to reflect upon how gender roles and expectations have changed in accordance to other issues such as age, social background/class, race and disability, this is called intersectionality. Intersectionality is a term coined by Kimberle Crenshaw (1989), an American professor and noted that feminist theory focused on white, middle-class females and it disregarded different groups of women who have different ‘layers’ of life to contend with. A modern example how this issue has changed and progressed in the last 30 years is Dame Tanni Grey- Thompson. She is an 11 gold Paralympian who, through her determination in the face of her disability, Spina Bifida has made her an international sporting hero and increased awareness of Paralympic…
Race and gender are frequently seen as independent spheres of encounters which influence social, economic, and political aspects of oppression. Despite this, each of the categories overlaps, and cross each other, creating complex interactions. This concept is known as intersectionality. How one defines him or herself is greatly influenced by individual characteristics, family dynamics, historical factors, and social and political contexts (Tatum). All of the ways in which people experience these factors are in turn shaped heavily by race and gender.…
Intersectionality is a significant concept that is believed to be affecting every aspect of life. The correlation between different aspects, and the product of their effects is based on the idea of intersectionality. In simple words, intersectionality is where two or more points intersect. This point, this crest that is formed by the interaction of different views, is what the Crenshaws looking at. In her research of “almost routine violence that shapes their (women) lives” (Crenshaw, p533), she is trying to find the correlation between different aspects in the society at that time. Even though the domestic violence was recognized as a “broad-scale system of domination that affects women as a class” (Crenshaw, p533), it is not self creating.…
Ever since the earliest wave of feminism, women all across the nation have been effected by the battles and outcomes of feminists for centuries. My grandmother being one of those women said during our interview that many of the rights feminists fought for had changed her life before she was even born, as she did not have to grow up under such a patriarchal nation as a young child into her adulthood. The most significant social change that affected my grandmother’s life was the right to vote. Although white women got the right to vote in 1916 provincially and 1918 nationally; which was before my grandmother was born, she remembers how the right for women to participate in something so important and fundamental to our nation brought a sense…
‘Equality is about creating a fairer society, where everyone can participate and has the opportunity to fulfill their potential’ (London deanery, 2012).Equality does not mean that everyone has to be treated the same. People have different needs and ambitions, every person should have equality of opportunity. Promoting equality should remove discrimination in all of the areas of bullying, harassment or victimization.…