Theorizing Intersectionality❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🖤
“Intersectionality is a theory of interlocking oppressions that states that those who are most marginalized in society are those who fall under multiple forms of minority social stratification, such as class, race, sexual orientation, age, religion, creed, disability, and gender” (Wikipedia). This term was coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw and is important when trying to understand the multiple ways in which someone may be a “victim” of society. In Demarginalizing the Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory, and Antiracist Politic, Crenshaw discusses the struggles of being both black and a woman. “The boundaries of sex and racial discrimination are defined respectively by white women’s and black men’s experiences. Under this view, black women are protected only to the extent that their experiences coincide with those of either of the two groups”. Meaning that you can either face the issue as a black person or as a woman, but never as both. A good example of this was when Crenshaw’s used a piece written by Sojourner Truth called “Ain’t I a Woman”, where Truth speaks about being treated different from other women, simply because she is a black. Truth overhears a man saying, “women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere”, but no one gives her these things, even though she is a woman. She gave birth, something only a woman can do, yet she is still not treated the same as the white woman are. This is because the men compare her to a black person, someone who (to them) is of less value than everyone else rather than a woman who deserves the same treatment as all the other women. See the conflict?
Crenshaw was not the first to point out all these overlapping problems that black woman face. In 1863, there was a group formed called the Combahee River Collective which was led by Harriet Tubman. During its six years of existence, members worked on a variety of issues affecting black women, including sterilization abuse, reproductive freedom, and violence against women. The author of this piece stated that “we also often find it difficult to separate race from class from sex oppression because in our lives they are most often experienced simultaneously” (Smith & Smith). This reminds of a TED talk I watched called, 3 ways to speak English. The speaker uses almost a free flow, rap style, spoken word piece to prove a point that she (as a black person) is tri-tongued orator”. She try to say that depending on who she is talking to, whether it be her friends, her classmates, or her parents the language changes a little.
Jamila Lyiscott is a “tri-tongued orator;” in her powerful spoken-word essay “Broken English,” she celebrates — and challenges —
Black people are taught to change their dialect at a young age to sound “whiter”, because that is what is considered professional. I personally have been accused of “talking like a white girl” and I’ve always taken offense to this because of what it is insinuating. Just because I’m black doesn’t mean that I must speak improperly or act “rachet”. This is separating race and class, because an upper-class white person sounds more proper than a lower class one; just like an upper-class black may sound more like an upper class white then a lower class one.
The final problem I am going to discuss comes about in Vivyan Adair’: Branded with Infamy: Inscriptions of Poverty and Class in the United States, that affected both black women and white men. This reading talks about the fact “that the systems of power produce and patrol poverty through the reproduction of both social and bodily makers”. This mean this that if you are poor, you will look the part and be deemed a “bad”/” unfit” person. One quote from an African American woman who grow up in public housing said “poor was all over our faces. My glasses were taped and too weak. My big brother had missing teeth. My mom was dull and ashy. It was like a story of how poor we were that anyone could see. My sister Evie’s lip was bit by a dog and we just had a dime store stuff to put on it. Her lip was a big scar. Then she never smiled, and no one smiled at her cause she never smiled. Kids call(ed) her “Scarface”. Teachers never smiled at her. The principle put her in detention all the time because she was mean and bad (they said)”. It’s sad that this family was demonized for simply not being somewhat wealthy and the saddest part is even though they were fed, had clothes, and a roof over their head, their mother was still probably shamed by society for living in public housing and being somewhat dependent upon the government. This problem goes beyond mothers; homeless people are looked down on in society as well. They are treated like the scum of the earth and often go to jail for made up crimes like staying in the same spot for too long. Instead of helping people in poverty we tend to turn a blind eye towards them, because society has us believe that it is their fault they are in that situation, when in reality they are just victims of their circumstances.
References:
Adair, V. C. (2002). Branded with Infamy: Inscriptions of Poverty and Class in the United States. Signs, 27(2), 451-471.
Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Policies. The University of Chicago Legal Forum, 139-168.
Frazier, D., Smith, B., & Smith, B. (1977). Combahee River Collective: A Black Feminist Statement. Off Our Backs, 9(6), 6-8.
“Intersectionality.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Feb. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersectionality.
