Essay On Intersectionality

The film is called the Urgency of Intersectionality by a speaker named Kimberle Crenshaw. The director has done a fantastic job with this film I find it very powerful and touching. I feel like this film is a part of a movement because at the beginning of this film Kimberle Crenshaw asked the audience to stand up, and she said to stand up if anyone in the audience know who these people are. Then she started to naming each individual who were African-American males who were the victims of police brutality. As she spoke on she then proceeded to name the African-American women who were also victims of police brutality for the past two years. Then the audience began to sit down.

Even though there is an Elimination Act of all forms of discrimination against women in 1979 the United States still continue to bridge a gap in wages. When you look at the wage gap you can clearly see the difference in gender and it is much worse for people of color. The wage gap is not just a gender issue it also affects racial minorities. Asian American women experience the smallest gender pay gap. The Hispanic and Latina women had the largest gap with 54 percent of what the white men were paid in 2013. The gender pay gap for American Indian and Alaska Native women has went down to 60 and 59 percent in 2013. As for African American women they are paid 64 percent of what white men were paid in 2013 and white women were paid 78 percent of what white men were paid ( Catherine, H). Over the years the wage gap is in fact improving but only by a small percentage. In 2012 the wage gap was 77% and in 2013 the

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.

Intersectionality has truly opened my eyes in cases where there is a possibility where two systems of oppression can be working together to make life a struggle for a certain group or race. In the political world when someone feels that they are being mistreated or being taken advantage of they make their voice heard. They search for the correct people to help them in their situation and once in court and they feel that they have been mistreated for example racially and gender discrimination the question now becomes well which one is it? Gender or race? It cannot be both. Well, why can’t we choose both options each is a brick in the wall of oppression that everyone has faced at least once in their life. Not to generalize the fact that people face more walls in their life than others based on certain privileges from the type of skin, class, or the global power of wealth and how much it is used for ill intentions. Intersectionality creates lenses in seeing the “bricks” of the wall, seeing what each one stands for and what it does to us. However, it also shows us where it is weak and way for us as scholars to find the weak points and change our groups future where we will no longer fear to speak about the injustices we see every day and will be able to fight and give knowledge to our “enemy” as well for they could see their error as well.

Inequality is present in every corner of the United States of America. It comes in all different shapes and sizes; it may come in the form of race, ethnicity, sex, or even gender. To showcase how big of an issue it really is I will compare and contrast the differences between them. One of the most ongoing and present topics of inequality is race. The inequality often lies in the sense of income made by different races, the most common being white Americans making more than African Americans. In the 2011, the average income of the white American household was $110,000, while the African American household average was just over $6,000(Vega). The difference is jaw dropping, it would take no rocket scientist to realize there is some sort of inequality occurring between African Americans and White Americans. However, this is not the only type of inequality occurring. Inequality between gender is very similar to the inequality between ethnicities. The wage gap between genders seems to be the most prevalent topic among discussion at the present time. We fortunately live in a society and time where the fight for equality is very strong. We have seen so much change just within the past 5 years. “In 2015, women working full time in the United States typically were paid just 80 percent of what men were paid” (Miller). The difference in wage is jarring. From

“Join the union, girls, and together say Equal Pay for Equal Work” -Susan B. Anthony. Countless women, even here in the U.S. have some sort of the wage gap. The wage gap is the difference between the median earnings of women relative to median earnings of men. In this case, women earn a significant amount less than men. Although the wage gap has gotten smaller over the years, the wage gap still has a long way to go. Women deserve better than just minimum earnings. Full time, working women should obtain the best promotions and benefits. Women that work just as tough and have the equivalent qualifications as men do still earn less, and that is just unacceptable. The wage gap should be abolished on behalf of women of color and their struggle, equal pay is a global problem, equal pay benefits employers and workers, and the wage gap accumulates over time.

The topics intersectionality and gender discrimination are words many people do not know of in full knowledge in this class it became understandable that it 's everywhere. This two words have strong meaning because intersectionality is only having one gender and one race working for a certain job not having diversity. As for gender discrimination it is based on the gender and one gender having more privileges which is usually men. My interviewee Ria was knowledgeable in this because she went to school and right away she felt a connection to this topics. At her job Dennys she is a server and at the Jasmine Adult Day Center she is the social workers assistant they both receive many people

“I do not demand equal pay for any women save those who do equal work in value. Scorn to be coddled by your employers; make them understand that you are in their service as workers, not as women.” (Susan B. Anthony) Susan B. Anthony said this over a hundred years ago, when the woman’s suffrage movement was just beginning in the United States. Even after all this time, the gender wage gap is a still hot topic in the United States today. Popular stars and politicians including Kate Winslet, Jennifer Lawrence, and Hillary Clinton all have something to say about it. There is even a section of thewhitehouse.gov dedicated to discussing the gender wage gap which is the comparison of women 's wages to men’s wages in the United States (“Equal Pay”). It is pretty common knowledge in the United States that women make 78 cents to a man’s dollar. However, it is not common knowledge that this is only comparing white women to white men (“The Simple Truth”). Women of color make even less than that, Latinas making the least, only 54 cents to a white man’s dollar. The Latina wage gap is largely ignored by the media because of the complicated politics of racial and gender based discrimination.

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.

Kimberlé Crenshaw is an esteemed civil rights advocate and law professor. Crenshaw introduced the concept of “intersectionality” to the acclaimed feminist theory close to 30 years ago in a paper written for the University of Chicago Legal Forum, describing the “intersectional experience” as something “greater than the sum of racism and sexism. (Crenshaw)” She wrote in terms of intersectional feminism, which examines the overlapping systems of oppression and discrimination that women face, based not just on gender but on ethnicity, sexuality, economic background and a number of other axes. She speaks on it in a sense that the term intersectionality provides us with a way to see issue that arise from discrimination or disempowerment often being more complicated for people who are subjected to multiple forms of exclusion because of the protected clauses they may possess. Crenshaw speaks on the “urgency of intersectionality” in her Ted talk. This as well as her spreading awareness for the #SayHerName campaign drives a tie between the necessity for intersectionality advocaism and the the occurrences of neglect and violence present in societal happenings today. The question that stands in the forefront of her work is how can we effectively apply an intersectional methodology to analysis of violence and other acts against people who are often being neglected of any sort of recognition in social issues today? Intersectionality is one of the better known concepts within the

Intersectionality according to Patricia Hill Collins is the “theory of the relationship between race, gender and class” (1990), also known as the “matrix of domination” (2000). This matrix shows that there is no one way to understand the complex nature of how gender, race and class inequalities within women’s lives can be separated; for they are intertwined within each other.

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

Oppression signifies an authority over another group, disengaging that particular group from the rest of society. “The term oppression encapsulates the fusion of institutional and systemic discrimination, personal bias, bigotry, and social prejudice in a complex web of relationships and structures that shade most aspects of life in our society” (Bell, 1997). In one way or another every individual experiences some form of oppression, whether it be through race, sex, gender, religion, age, wealth and/or sexual orientation. These cultural minorities experience inequality where a dominant culture casts its authority and power through exercises of unjust and cruel methods; these methods have been experienced through the Women’s Movement, the

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.