What is Intersectionality?

The following is an excerpt from Dr. Kristen's TEDxSouthLakeTahoe talk on the failure of tolerance.

Legal scholar Kimberlee Crenshaw coined the term “intersectionality” in the late 1980s to explain that women are not a homogenous group and that the experiences of black women are different than those of white women. While women are absolutely at a disadvantage in every society, black women are more so than white women because of the intersections of identity and societal prejudice and systemic racism. It has become a cornerstone of how social scientists understand society. It’s also become a bit of a buzzword - so maybe you’ve heard it.

But just like diversity, or inclusion, it doesn’t mean anything unless we explore and activate it.?

I am a woman, I am white, I am middle-class, I am fat. I am more educated than common. I’m married, but I don’t have kids. I’m a business owner, who is also vaguely obsessed with Captain America, and who can sing every word of Hamilton. I’ve lived outside of the U.S., I’m married to an immigrant, and I was born and raised on traditional Lenni-Lenape lands.?

On paper, those *barely* define who I am, or how I experience the world, but they certainly define more than ‘white lady’ the research tells me that you thought when I walked on stage.

Just as Lizzo is not just her body, and Malala is not just her past. Just like Trayvon Martin was not just the black boy who George Zimmerman assumed he had nothing in common with and was therefore threatened by. We are all so many things all at once - and many, many of those things connect us and form common points of intersection that also endorse diversity.?

As I said before, ‘intersectionality’ is a bit of a buzzword because it sounds both very important and deceptively simple. We all know what intersections are in terms of roads, so surely intersections in our lives can’t be more complicated than that, right? Well, yes and no. It is a straightforward idea - like I said, we are all so many things at once.

Intersections fall into several categories. There are intersections that give us privilege in the society we’re in, or in all societies, and ones that oppress us. There are intersections that put us in the center of “normal” in whatever culture we’re in, and there are ones that put us on the outside of that center, ones that ‘other’ us.?

Let’s take my stated intersections and break them down along these lines. I am white, which is a privilege everywhere, even when I am in the physical minority. I am a woman, which is an oppression everywhere, even when I am in the physical majority. As a white woman, I enjoy more privileges than Black, Indigenous, Asian, or Latina women, but I still get the cultural assumptions that come with being a woman.?

Some of these put me at the center of normal for how our society believes women are to be. It’s assumed that I’ll be in a heterosexual relationship - I am, so that’s another privilege. It’s assumed that in my 30s, I’ll be married. I am, so that’s a way I’m in the center of normal. It’s assumed I’ll have formal education degrees, like chardonnay, and have a few children as well. And that’s where things get more complicated. I do have formal education - but I have more than most, so that others me. I am iffy on wine - I mean, it’s fine? - but I really love Bushmills and Guinness. I’ve also made the decision to not have any children, and instead to focus my energies on changing the world. There are women who can do both, I am not one of those women, so I made a choice. And that others me.?

Whoever you are, whatever your intersections are, you most likely carry privilege in one of them. Does your body function the way society wants it to? That’s a privilege. What about your brain? How about your gender identity, or your sexuality, or your employment? Recognizing any privileges that we have as we move about the world is the first step towards reshaping our understanding of diversity away from the tick box exercise I described earlier and into something richer and more beneficial for everyone.?

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