Intersectionality In Sister Outsider Audre Lorde

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.

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.

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.

Intersectionality is putting individuals within a population into certain categories based on assumed, or even true, similarities of those individuals and treating the individual differently, and most of the time unfairly, based on the category they are placed in. For instance, putting all people of color into one category and then treating them different just based on the fact that they are colored.

Intersectionality is a term that describes the ways which oppressive institutions such as, sexism, homophobia, racism, classism etc interact. Categories such as gender, ethnicity, poverty and mental illness reinforce each other in ’‘Women on the Edge of Time’’ and they overdetermine a negative outcome. Piercy put Connie in positions where she came to understand sexism, working class opression and white supremacy in both her personal life and in Mattapoisett.

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

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

Audre Lorde was born in New York City the 18th of February 1934 of Caribbean immigrants. As a child, the author had difficulties in communication that made her acknowledge poetry and its power as a form of expression, allowing her to become a writer, a feminist, and a civil rights activist. Which is very strong in “Age, Race, Class, and Sex” in which the author describes her feelings using a style of superior journalism with elements of popular culture that leads to racial issues. In order to emphasize more her sociological argument, Lorde uses personal experience as ethos. “As a forty-nine- year- old Black lesbian feminist socialist, mother of two including one boy, and member an inter- racial couple, I usually find myself a part of some group defined as other, deviant, inferior, or just plain wrong”(Lorde, 114). Audre Lorde strength is in her inferiority and points out very actual issues such as: distortion of relationship between oppressor and oppressed and the misnamed differences that still leads to racism.

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

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

As Audre Lorde writes in her article Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference, “Certainly there are very real differences between us of race, age, and sex. But it is not those differences between us that are separating us. It is rather our refusal to recognize those differences.” The #SayHerName movement does not just say they are trying to end violence that threaten women in general but women of color and transgender women. It is not just a problem with all women but specifically women of color. Color-Blindness or the statements “I don’t see color or race; I see us as the human race.” does not allow people to recognized an individual personal traits and characteristics and that some people do have problems that only affect them.

Intersectionality is described as the integration and connection of a person’s race, class, gender, and socioeconomic status all combined into one. With all of these things taken place in one’s life, they can cause an extreme strain on a person’s livelihood. This concept has been consistently brought up in majority of my classes. Creating a dynamic where the person will or can be judged and harmed because of all the things that have been ascribed to them. Using this concept as I go forth in my educational journey will be necessary because it will allow me to better understand someone’s perspective. This will allow me to be more effective when I need to assist them in any services.

“Human Family” by Maya Angelou, and Barack Obama’s speech on races both explain how all people are different and the same. They do this by expressing their thoughts through a speech, and figurative language. Their thoughts include thinking that all people are more alike than they are different, all people should be treated equally and we have the power to make that happen, and explaining how they personally came to find out that all people can be the same while still being different. Everyone is alike and unalike, but, we can all work together to make human equality a reality.