Intersectionality

The film is called the Urgency of Intersectionality by a speaker named Kimberle Crenshaw. The director has done a fantastic job with this film I find it very powerful and touching. I feel like this film is a part of a movement because at the beginning of this film Kimberle Crenshaw asked the audience to stand up, and she said to stand up if anyone in the audience know who these people are. Then she started to naming each individual who were African-American males who were the victims of police brutality. As she spoke on she then proceeded to name the African-American women who were also victims of police brutality for the past two years. Then the audience began to sit down.

According to Vivian Mays article Intersectionality, her article highlights the narrowness within her range of intersectionality, in which is has constructed a binary of analysis, so that liberation frameworks get silenced from power dynamics. Power dynamics ensure the restriction of autonomy, because of the ability to narrow the foundation of liberation in order to sustain the status quo. May writes,

According to Kimberlé Crenshaw, the concept of intersectionality refers to the way multiple oppressions particularly among the women are expressed. Kimberlé Crenshaw uses a scenario of traffic flow to describe intersectionality. She argues that many times black women find themselves in an intersection as a result of race discrimination and sex discrimination (Kimberlé 139). They suffer in many ways that may not be placed easily in legal categories of sexism or racism. The injustices they experience are a combination of both sexism and racism and they are “invisible” in the legal framework. An example of such injustices is employment discrimination that these women experience because they are women and black at the same time. A company like

I am applying intersectionality and the sociological imagination to my intersecting identities: class, gender, and ethnicity. By employing intersectionality and the sociological imagination, I am analyzing how my positionality affected my personal experiences while connecting those events with society. I also included five peer-reviewed articles as supporting evidence.

Intersectionality is a framework that must be applied to all social justice work, a frame that recognizes the multiple aspects of identity that enrich our lives and experiences. This framework synthesizes and complicates oppressions and marginalization’s. In the article, “Why Intersectionality Can’t Wait” Kimberle Crenshaw talks about how the purpose of intersectionality has been lost. Intersectional somehow creates an environment of bullying and privilege checking. This society cannot afford to have movements that are not intersectional because all races need to be embraced and have equality.

Kimberle Crenshaw’s “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex”, where Crenshaw discusses the role of intersectionality from a judicial point of view. Crenshaw states “focus on the most privileged group members marginalizes those who are multiply-burdened and obscures claims that cannot be understood as resulting from discrete sources of discrimination” (Crenshaw 140). Crenshaw adds that the struggles of Women of Color are usually individualized and not seen as a systematic attack on them as a group.

Throughout history, women have continuously found themselves as the subjects of oppression. Although the treatment of women has drastically changed over time, women are still exposed to much of the violence that exists today. Per the National Organization for Women, “young women, low-income women and some minorities are disproportionately victims of domestic violence and rape” (National Organization for Women, 2016). Women-centered violence is highly prevalent and reoccurring all over the world, even in our local communities. Individuals may be hesitant to consider just how much violence against women affects their communities.

It is mandatory to understand the history behind Intersectionality and it’s upbringing to understand how it ties into cultural identity. Kimberlé Crenshaw’s classic article “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color” helps to understand the struggle that women of color face with entwined differences that are not confronted and dealt with accordingly. Crenshaw mentions that, “The problem with identity politics is not that it fails to transcend difference, as some critics charge, but rather the opposite -- that is frequently conflates or ignores infra group differences. In the context of violence against women, this elision of difference is problematic, fundamentally because the violence that many women experience is

The idea of intersectionality is that all of our identities overlap and are also constantly affecting our privileges and oppressions. People do not always think about their interactions despite them playing a pivotal role in our human experience. This is what causes some writers to feel the need to put them into words so that maybe more people will look at themselves and do some thinking about their own intersections. Some of the authors that I believe have done this well are Patricia Collins in her work titled Black Feminist Thought. Another work that discussed intersectionality well is titled “A Black Feminist Statement” which is powerful in the way it discusses how race interacts with womanhood. The final piece I feel as though needs discussed is Women, Race, and Class which is a piece written by Angela Davis that discusses the intersections that can be seen in

According to our Prezi Presentation by Lisa Anderson on "Intersectionality", intersectionality was defined as, "How systems of inequality mutually constitute and reinforce each other"(2015). However, I would define intersectionality as a mutually linked constitution of communal classifications equal to class, race, gender with regards and applicability to a specified group and/or individual which produces both an extension and interconnected structure of bigotry, favoritism, hatred, inequality, prejudice, and/or a detriment as a whole. Intersectionality plays a critical role in our society due to its power within the myriad of the social groups and social locations (Anderson, 2015). Since, we, as people have the tendency to belong to more than one social group, intersectionality has the propensity of morphing into an ever larger societal issue due to the functions of power (Anderson, 2015).

Kimberlé Crenshaw is an esteemed civil rights advocate and law professor. Crenshaw introduced the concept of “intersectionality” to the acclaimed feminist theory close to 30 years ago in a paper written for the University of Chicago Legal Forum, describing the “intersectional experience” as something “greater than the sum of racism and sexism. (Crenshaw)” She wrote in terms of intersectional feminism, which examines the overlapping systems of oppression and discrimination that women face, based not just on gender but on ethnicity, sexuality, economic background and a number of other axes. She speaks on it in a sense that the term intersectionality provides us with a way to see issue that arise from discrimination or disempowerment often being more complicated for people who are subjected to multiple forms of exclusion because of the protected clauses they may possess. Crenshaw speaks on the “urgency of intersectionality” in her Ted talk. This as well as her spreading awareness for the #SayHerName campaign drives a tie between the necessity for intersectionality advocaism and the the occurrences of neglect and violence present in societal happenings today. The question that stands in the forefront of her work is how can we effectively apply an intersectional methodology to analysis of violence and other acts against people who are often being neglected of any sort of recognition in social issues today? Intersectionality is one of the better known concepts within the

Intersectionality according to Patricia Hill Collins is the “theory of the relationship between race, gender and class” (1990), also known as the “matrix of domination” (2000). This matrix shows that there is no one way to understand the complex nature of how gender, race and class inequalities within women’s lives can be separated; for they are intertwined within each other.

The theory of intersectionality has received a widespread of various distinct definitions and usage; it is often unclear of its designed function may be. Intersectionality is defined as “the acknowledgment that different forms of identity-based discrimination can combine to give rise to unique brands of injustice”(Lucas 8). In other words, how the classification of one’s individuality such as gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, and class can intertwine with each other among the social structure. The term was first coined by feminist and civil rights advocate Kimberlé Crenshaw who spoke upon the discrimination and marginalization of black women and how both institutions interconnect with one another. The significance of

There are many interpretations of intersectionality, but without a doubt, the critical theory of intersectionality is based on the understanding that oppressive institutions within society take different forms for specific cultural and social positions of individuals and groups. Among the concerns in the article, Joan Simalchik and Hunter College Women’s and Gender Studies Collective discuss the ways in which intersectionality provides a better understanding of how relations of power and privilege and the intersection of gender and race influence women’s everyday lives.

The concept of gender denotes the distinction between culturally driven and created roles of masculinity and femininity. These specific and normalized attitudes and behaviors transcend and effect how differently men and women live their lives. Based on society’s continual re-enforcement of such gender stereotypes, we see an on-going dilemma of gender inequality. Though some may argue that men experience gender inequality, this seems to exist on a much more invasive level for women. As of recently, the awareness of gender inequality in the workplace has increased. With the fight for equal pay and equal respect, society is already making strides towards the equality of women. With that being said, one aspect of gender inequality that seems