Brief Summary of Lilith's Brood by Erin Hunter, Octavia E. Butler

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.

Racism is a socially constructed concept used by multiple groups of people and creates a hierarchy of sorts based purely on the color of a person’s skin or their cultural origins. It has been an idea that has existed since the beginnings of civilization. A more modern iteration of this concept was made prominent in the 16th century as European settlers began to explore different areas of the world, specifically areas in or around Africa. But slavery can be seen back in the 1500s all the way to 1880 and was most likely a leading example of what helped define racism up to the 20th century. In Ali Rattansi’s book, “Racism: A Very Short Introduction” , the author connects how slavery and race are closely tied together. European explorers would ignore the cultures the invaded in order to see these people as nothing more than native groups that were meant to be seen in a subservient role. Slavery would continue to grow across the Atlantic and seen as an institution that created large amounts of wealth for those who could reap the benefits from it. As long as money was being made, slavery persisted and was justified. Race and racism was conceived the way it was because the slave owning system was controlled by European colonizers.

The idea of race suggests that observed differences in cultural and social status are the product of biologically based differences among major ethnic groups. Out of that distinction the idea of racial superiority was evolved. In the majority of the population’s eyes at that time, the African race was inferior. They were seen as primitive and un-evolved. This was also another justification for the white populations, to both the governments, to uphold slavery as it was seen as a part of nature, and it also justified the idea to themselves. It was an excuse and a rationalisation for their actions, and an explanation to their own morals and Christian values.

In the memoir “Two or Three Things I Know for Sure”, Dorothy Allison recites stories from her life that ultimately depict the oppression and liberation seen in gender, sexuality, and social class. Intersectionality is a theme that can be seen throughout the book. Intersectionality is the overlapping of characteristics (such as sex, gender, race, class, and sexuality) that forms a person’s identity. Although people may have similar traits and characteristics, they are distinct from person to person. They can depict different features about different people throughout society.

I liked one definition of intersectionality which I would like to put here. “Intersectionality seeks to provide a tool for analyzing the ways in which gender, race, class and all other forms of identity and distinction, in different contexts, produce situations in which women and men become vulnerable to abuse and discrimination.”(1). When we try to study how the intersection of race, gender, social class, effects humans and how are they connected then it means we are using intersectionality theory. For example what are the problems of white, young, female and what are the problems of black, young female. What will happen if we remove young from the equation and replace it with old? Inequality of gender is clearly defined but inequality of same sex is complicated. If we want to know the problems of women and man then we might just find some sex related issues. But when we talk about just men or women then it’s a different story. I heard that all men are created equal but people use different lens to see it. For example, some time man is called black man or white man, Muslim man or Christian man. They are all men but their gender intersects with other identities and makes them different from one another. When somebody is discriminated on the basis of color, we know this exist. Intersectionality tells us about other kind of discrimination. For example black man with different religion. It means same gender, same color, same language but different religion.

Power and oppression is something that has been in our world for a long time. With each generation, power and oppression come up in a new way and they are in peoples lives in different ways. A girl is told that they are not pretty enough if they are not like a Barbie doll and how men are constantly being taught that they need to be nothing but masculine. We constantly have a power over children to be what society wants them to be, no matter what gender they are. Society often tries to put them in a box at an early age and it leads to problems within our society. Intersectional analysis is something that is beneficial to our society and trying to move on from these societal problems.

As many women struggled to retain their values and traditions, there were existing male dominated conceptions of race and white dominated conceptions of gender. Kimberle Crenshaw describes the concept of intersectionality where race and gender interact in various ways to shape multiple dimensions experiences for different groups

An intersectional approach is an approach which seeks to demonstrate how race, class, gender and sexuality make certain experiences different. Intersectionality is the overlapping of social categories such as race, class, gender and sexuality that leads to further discrimination against a certain individual or group. To take an intersectional approach to understand race, class, gender and sexuality, is to consider hardships not as a similar element for all individuals without regards to race, but instead consider where in a specific hardship different races, genders, classes and sexualities are affected different. According to Crenshaw, “many of the experiences Black women face are not subsumed within the traditional boundaries of race or gender discrimination as these boundaries are currently understood, and that the intersection of racism and sexism factors into Black women’s lives in ways that cannot be captured wholly by looking at the woman race or gender dimensions of those experiences separately” (Crenshaw, 357). Crenshaw explains that the personal experiences of women of color cannot be fully understood by looking at race or gender discrimination as two separate factors, but in fact can be understood if both aspects are looked at together. When race and gender are examined separately, this causes for women of color to be “erased”. Crenshaw says, “ And so, when the practices expound identity as “woman” or “person of color” as an either/or proposition, they relegate

Intersectionality is a relevant theory for some gay, lesbian or bisexual individuals. Intersectionality studies "the relationships among multiple dimensions and modalities of social relationships and subject formations" (McCall, 2005). The theory argues, pursues and considers how gender, race, sexual orientation and other categories of identity interact on many and often concurring levels of social relationships, therefore allowing discrimination and social inequity. Intersectionality explains how the notion of social injustice, such as racism, sexism, homophobia, and belief-based bigotry such as religion are not independent of one another; instead, they are interconnected, and thereby reflect “intersectionality” in regards to social

In the beginning of the novel when Lilith is in isolation she displays typical human behavior, fearfully making demands and refusing to cooperate. She feels as if “she has to risk bargaining” and try to gain something from the Oankali (Butler 6). While this probably would have worked from an anthropocentric point of view, assuming that her captors were also human, this did not work with the Oankali because they do not respond to temper tantrums or bargaining, only cooperation. However, the alienation brought forth an opportunity for Lilith to open her mind because sometimes when the opinions of others constantly surround an individual they do not attempt

Up to now, I do not what think about intersectionality. I understand the usefulness of it as Collins phrases it (as an academic field, as a strategy and as critical praxis). However, many intersectionality scholars tend to ignore the asymmetries across “races”/classes, genders, and so on. A good example of this, is Crenshaw’s article; I would not argue that black women, are being oppressed by a) their gender b) their color. However, focusing exclusively on “violence perpetrated by men under the same race”, leaves aside the rest of factors of systematic oppression and structural discrimination. For instance, the violence exercised by white women or white men against them. It seems that by solely using intersectionality we are reproducing the

Intersectionality is the study of intersections between different disenfranchised groups or groups of minorities. The theory of intersectionality stems from various socially and culturally constructed categorical groups, who are discriminated against based on their race, class, gender or other social inequalities. Historically, these groups have interacted on multiple levels and are simultaneously oppressed, stigmatized, marginalized through many means, such as indentured servitude, mass incarceration, collateral consequences, etc. Additionally, the issues racism and sexism are intertwined on many levels, and cannot be abolished individually. Therefore, in order to eliminate these different types of oppressions, the system (body of government, society) should be made more

Intersectionality was one of the important key concepts that I learned in class related to most social change work. Such as having to look at wealth and how it effects one’s quality of life despite belonging to an oppressed group. This can be seen between characters in the Stonewall book where Foster had a relatively easy life despite being a homosexual compared to someone like Craig who went to prison multiple times and had to work hard, even having to scrape by a few times (Duberman, 1994).

Oh how the dark Silas loved the loving Luna, Amara. But love can be a curse and a blessing; for love at first sight, may be the reason for all the fights. When she came of age, her soul vowed to another man. Pack leader of them all, Klaus, Alpha of the Bloodrose Keepers pack. Soon Silas disappears out of rage, vowing to return for his childhood love, the luna, no matter of the cost. Ten years later the dark Silas returns, rough in all demanding a battle for Amara’s love -- truest warrior of them all. Clothed in white, the moon goddess, Isis, protects the pack over the so called rogue rebels, because that’s the way she designed them to be.

She is brought to the home of Jdahya and his family where is she is placed in the care of his ooloi child, Nikanj. (The ooloi are a third sex in the Oankali species.) She slowly learns about their society, both from what she is told and how she is treated. Humanity has become almost extinct because of “the war” and the only survivors are those the Oankali rescued, most of whom are still in induced comas. Their apparent rescuers had been restoring earth for over two centuries while the surviving humans slept. Lilith is informed that she will prepare a group of humans to interact with the Oankali and she will eventually “parent