A Synthesis Of Intersectionality Theory And Institutional Ethnography

The notion of making the invisible visible is this concept that recognizes the forces of power because they highlight how experiences and certain identities get constructed and normalized into the dynamics of society. For instance, being a poor person of color, or a queer person allows those people to be subjected under different layers of power, such as gender stereotypes, economic expectations, which are ultimately social control mechanisms that place humans on this spectrum of who deserves success and who does not. Intersectionality, in regards to Honduran Americans references the different layers of forces which are subjecting them to be discriminated inside a white dominated nation. For instance, white males are at the top of the spectrum while poor black queer women are at the bottom of latter thereby indicating how oppression is reactionary toward subjective identities.

Depending on the individual who is pondering around the complexity of “Intersectionality” may cause a dispute of what they believe is the definition. Victoria L. Bromley, the author of Feminisms Matter: Debates, Theories, Activism illustrates a feminist view of how intersectionality is the root of oppression, which is all interconnected to our identity. Bromley, refers to this as “identity markers” this is how we categorize or describe individuals in a society. That being said, identity markers are bias, and not factual, they are used and believed to maintain the status quo. For example, with minimum knowledge, you see a white man on the street who is dressed

Intersectionality is defined as “a way to describe and recognize the ways in which race, class, gender, and sexuality work together to shape our life chances, experiences, and positions within society” (Lecture, Barnes). It is the impact that one’s characteristics, including but not limited to race, gender, economic status, age, health and sexuality, has on their experiences and positions within life. The intersection of one’s characteristics impacts the life chances given to an individual. If one’s characteristics fall into a minority group within society, they tend to be marginalized and face more discrimination, than say a white, heterosexual, upper class, man in present day American society. This can also be seen within the Social Construct

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.

According to dictionary.com, the word intersectionality is defined as, "the theory that the overlap of various social identities, as race, gender, sexuality, and class contributes to the specific type of systemic oppression and discrimination experienced by an individual. Expanding on this topic quite extensively is Make Your Home Among Strangers, which follows the story of Lizet, the daughter of a family of Cuban immigrants whose life at home falls out from under her feet just before she sets off to her freshman year of college. Lizet's form of intersectionality comes from being Cuban, having a lower-class family, an underachieving high school, and her family's disapproval of her deciding to even go to college, let along college in New York. Lizet's struggle to find friends and deal with her changing home life seems to be an issue every college student can relate to at some point during their freshman year whether or not they face intersectionality.

From our text, Race, Class, and Gender, we read Unit III E: The Structure of Social Institutions; The State and Violence: Policing the National Body: Sex, Race, and Criminalization; The Color of Justice; Rape, racism, and the Law; and Interpreting and Experiencing Anti-Queer Violence : Race, Class, and Gender Differences among LGBT Hate Crime Victims. We also encountered and excerpt from Social Work Practice With a Difference; The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, by Anne Fadiman. The first four reading from our text explore the association of the manner in which state power organizes race, class, and gender. We also get a view of how the intersectional approach of race, class, and gender may help us to understand some forms

Intersectionality expands beyond multiple locations of oppression, to explore how people both occupy positions of oppression and privilege simultaneously, and that these identities are also mutually constructive.The term “social location” refers not just to the way that these multiple idenitiies interact with the larger

Intersectionality holds that the theories of oppression within society do not act independently of each other, but are interrelated. This creates a system of oppression that reflects the intersection of multiple forms of discrimination. An advantage would be recognizing that all people are at the center of multiple intersections of power, inequality and privilege. They are shaped by their class, race and gender. These categories represent our views of the world and our actions taken, and includes other peoples views of us. No one fits into just one category because we have multiple categories. Within our own identities, we form our opinions of what we constitute as legal or illegal, right or wrong, and necessary or unnecessary.

I attended the Gender, Labor and Politics event provided by the Black Studies Project at UC San Diego. During this event, I was able to hear about the research done by three black women in which they examined the intersectionality of black women in America during different time periods. There were three speakers but I found that the research done by Sarah Haley brought forth the most relevant and interesting information.

The class inequality has been an issue for quite some time; the levels of this are the elite, middle, and lower class tiers. But even within these three major tiers, there are sub tiers, but mostly within the United States, society tends to rate women within the Middle to Lower class. This is true within the professional world of women, seeing as how they are considered on the weaker, lower class tier, Collins refers to an “outsider-within status” (1986), which “ exists with one is located on the boundary between two groups statuses—one with potential power and the other with little power” (2001). African American women have been affected by this “outsider-within status”, more than their Caucasian counterparts because even though “technically they have membership in a high status group, as black women, they are a part of a group

The history of education, much like the history of America, is rooted in severe discrimination and exploitation. The education system engendered a foundation that is grounded in the popular ideal of “the group” and “the other.” These groups dominated educational institutions for many generations and remained unchallenged despite growing unrest surrounding the popular belief. It was not until the 1950’s that this system of legal segregation/discrimination was challenged. The rectification of educational exclusion came from the infamous case of Brown v. The Board of Education. This ground-breaking civil rights case was the

During my time as an undergraduate, I majored in philosophy but intentionally selected courses that would further my knowledge on my range of interests in social justice and law. As I started to engage and learn about theories of intersectionality, social and structural inequalities and constructs, I grew angry at the world we have created for ourselves to live in. I understood that the injustices imposed on people at the dangerous intersections of sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, race, and ability are frequent and widespread. The oppressive forces that have allowed for the creation of such injustices have not only routinely excluded and silenced the voices of many groups of people, but have destroyed countless lives.

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.