Discrimination and oppression are often believed to be separate in nature. However, intersectionality was a term coined by Professor Kimberle Crenshaw to describe the intersections between race, class, gender, sexuality, and other characteristics. Many times, discrimination has no rational explanation other than the long lasting structures of white dominance built into American society today. Intersectionality helps in understanding how the structures of law and society could be intrinsically racist, and helps remind others in court that black women of color are both black and people of color, facing discrimination on both ends.
For example, Crenshaw revealed how DeGraffenreid v. General Motors, a 1976 case, had a ruling specifying that black women could not be considered a separate and protected class within the law, as it would risk opening a Pandora’s box of minorities demanding a voice in law. Treating black women as either black or women is a narrow view to an entire range of discrimination and challenges that women often face. Intersectionality forces these narrow views to truly inspect the issues that women of color experience, and truly understand their intersecting and unique identities.
However, people began fearing the term intersectionality, even going through great lengths to call it a religion where some identity groups are favoured over others. Nevertheless, their issue does not lie with understanding the term and its truth about the identities of people, but rather the possibility of the hierarchy of oppression being reversed so a cisgender, straight, and white man is the victim. Ben Shapiro, an outspoken cisgender and straight white man, commented on how intersectionality only values how many victim groups you belong to, completely ignoring the straight white male. He sees it as a hierarchy of victimhood, a radical take on the original definition by Crenshaw who only explained the intersection of identities, not the growing of a new hierarchy.
This argument is not new. People during the early civil rights movement denounced equal rights with the argument that it takes away something from them. Simultaneously, black women were shut out of leadership positions during the Civil Rights Movement, despite their important identities. Even so, intersectionality is not a way of reversing social hierarchies and causing destruction. It is a way to provide more advocacy and practices to produce a more equal system so we no longer live in a society that ignores the spectrums of oppression. Crenshaw wishes not to give people of color power over white people, but instead wants to alter the structures of American politics, law, and culture in order to rid these power hierarchies altogether.
In the end, none of these views and beliefs truly affect the situation that women of color face. There is more effect in how we use these views to alter our behaviours and actions and to truly analyze the situations of our peers. We need to truly ask people about their experiences, and stop overgeneralizing their opinions simply for one tiny part in their identity.
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