Intersectionality Reflection

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.

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.

According to Kimberlé Crenshaw, the concept of intersectionality refers to the way multiple oppressions particularly among the women are expressed. Kimberlé Crenshaw uses a scenario of traffic flow to describe intersectionality. She argues that many times black women find themselves in an intersection as a result of race discrimination and sex discrimination (Kimberlé 139). They suffer in many ways that may not be placed easily in legal categories of sexism or racism. The injustices they experience are a combination of both sexism and racism and they are “invisible” in the legal framework. An example of such injustices is employment discrimination that these women experience because they are women and black at the same time. A company like

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.

To want change, it requires a vivid mindset. To envision that life is occupied with a multitude of differences. To understand that things may not go the way you would like it to. To comprehend that everything you do and live by contributes to the life you live. Which includes your race, class, gender, sexuality and even religion. All of these aspects mentioned, shapes an individual, and in a way pathes their future. In this research paper, there will be a exploration on identity, diversity, stereotypes, discrimination, difference, and oppression that everyone in some lifetime will face . The evaluation will help get a effective comprehension of cultural identity and intersectionality.

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 will try to explain intersectionality. First of all you need to know what intersectionality is. Intersectionality is a theoretical framework which explains violence or discrimination against humans. Now I will give you an example and then try to connect it to intersectionality. I will use an example of spider web to explain this theory. This example will give you some idea about intersectionality. Think about a spider web. A Point in the centre and all threads connected to each other. If we remove one thread from the spider web, it will fall apart. Now consider yourself. You have some identities and these identities are connected just like spider web and we cannot remove any identity from you. If we remove any identity from you, then

The idea of intersectionality is that all of our identities overlap and are also constantly affecting our privileges and oppressions. People do not always think about their interactions despite them playing a pivotal role in our human experience. This is what causes some writers to feel the need to put them into words so that maybe more people will look at themselves and do some thinking about their own intersections. Some of the authors that I believe have done this well are Patricia Collins in her work titled Black Feminist Thought. Another work that discussed intersectionality well is titled “A Black Feminist Statement” which is powerful in the way it discusses how race interacts with womanhood. The final piece I feel as though needs discussed is Women, Race, and Class which is a piece written by Angela Davis that discusses the intersections that can be seen in

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

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

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.

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.

Social sciences and social justice are both based on the structure of rights. Our rights were designed to create equality for all. However, there are always outliers in our justice system and these outliers can be seen by all. My background and demographic are aggressively average growing up in a small, rural community with little diversity which has affected my views about justice. The class Social Problems and Social Injustice has aggressively opened my eyes to new statistics about society and has made some of my intuitions validated and destroyed some of my prior views. My new understanding of social justice is that is was created for all by excluding some. Justice is the structure of our institutions and society.