The Concept Of Intersectionality, What Can You Share About Their Identity?

The classifications of race and gender have intersected and caused conflicts with the lives of those close to me, shaping the social world in which I have grown up.

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.

In the book Enrique’s Journey written by Sonia Nazario, a projects reporter for the Los Angeles Times, Nazario talks about the true story of a young Honduran boy named Enrique that was abandoned at the age of 5 by his mother Lourdes. His mom left to the United States as an immigrant to work so she can be able to give her poor children a better living. After 11 years of tears, sadness and loneliness pass Enrique decides to go to North Carolina in search of his mother. Family is the central theme of Enrique 's Journey. By basing her investigation around Enrique 's story, Nazario explores the ways that immigration affects an individual’s family. Lourdes insistently believes that she is acting in the most responsible way as a parent by traveling to the U.S. for work. Though she initially makes the trip for her children, they immediately feel the heartbreak of separation beginning with Enrique who is asking where his mother is. Their whole notion of “family” becomes completely broken and will be seen later when the cycle continues with the family Enrique has created with Maria Isabella.

I interviewed a beautiful and courageous woman, of African descent. Born and raised in Monrovia, Liberia on May 20, 1969. In addition, she has one biological brother and three step siblings. Currently she resides in Loganville, Georgia, where she lives with her two children. By the same token, she and her husband been married for twenty-one years to her loving high school sweetheart husband. Due to unfortunate circumstances, she lost her husband in the line of duty. Causing her to become a widow, continuing to survive life without her husband. When I conducted this interview, had one topic in mind that I wanted to learn more about her life as an immigrant and how did influence her life.

The group of immigrants she joined came from all corners of Mexico. My mother didn’t spend any time learning names or stories, she understood that this would make it harder to leave them if they fell behind. Finally, the night of the crossing arrived. The immigrants told stories about people they knew who tried to take the same journey

Within the community the problem of intersectionality takes place because there are black girls who experience more problems in their delinquent years. Many young black girls are “affected by social problems” (1507) that are presented to them by the communities. 70 percent of these black girls have been “exposed to some form of trauma” (1529). Most of the girls “are more likely to receive harsher punishment than boys for similar offenses” because of their inability to act like ladies. Juveniles are often treated like adult criminals but they cannot afford “the same due process rights as adult criminals” (1514). Whenever black girls are presented to the judge they have a hard time making a first impression because they are do not act like

There were numerous hardships uncovered throughout the interview, which allows one to re-examine the trials and tribulations individuals face when immigrating to a foreign country. It was difficult at points of the interview to seek clarification on sensitive topics such as employment, and the notion of otherness. Carmela often recounted issues of great misfortune in her parent’s inabilities to make enough money for all nine siblings. Listening to such emotional stories often threw my interview off track, causing for a total review of the initial question. However, such stories

As depicted in the story, “Enrique’s Journey” by Sonia Nazario, immigrants from Central America and Mexico migrate due to one of the following reasons; poverty, abuse, or seeking their parents. As mentioned in the book, “...largest number of the unaccompanied children it catches. Of those, the counselors say, 75 percent are looking for their mothers.”(17-18); ultimately, this comes to show that these children which enter the U.S. illegally follow their impulse to seek acceptance from their mother which they feel had abandoned them. Similarly, it reveals that they were unable to get rid of their trauma of getting “left behind” revealing their lack of a parental figure. In all,what differentiates Mexican and Central American immigrants is

Ilucion Carlin who also goes by Carmen is a middle-class, nineteen-year-old student and employee I work with at kohls. She is a second generation American with a prominent Mexican background. Ilucion’s parents came to the United States from Mexico looking for a new start and a better education, her father came to the United States at the age of 16 and attended high school in the U.S to receive his diploma. While her mother came to the United States at the age of 19 looking to go to college, however, became pregnant and did not further her education. Since they came from Mexico, they brought along with them the culture and traditions, and it has been an integrative part of her growing up, and help her become who she is today. I choose to interview Ilucion because of her

Intersectionality is made up of three faucets: social identities; systems of oppression; and the interaction and intersection between the two.

For example, a high income, homosexual, Hispanic male describes his intersectionality. Bowleg (2012) discusses the need to further define intersectionality in terms

The moral of this story is that so many families and children cross the border and risk their life for a better future here in the United States. To have better jobs, better education for their children. These families left everything to come to the U.S despite owning their home and having good jobs back home, but they wanted a better future here in the U.S. for their love ones. Alma Rivera leaving her house so her daughter can have better education, Arturo Rivera leaving his construction cite that he mange to come to the U.S and work even hard for his daughter who is disable and have better education, Celia Toro leaving her country because it was going through a tough time and coming to Delaware with spouse and two children, and now being

The political problem that led Kimberle Williams Crenshaw to coin the term intersectionality was the ongoing social injustices circulating within our society that are extended, creating various regions of injustices. Intersectionality signifies the gap between two intersecting roads organized by race and gender. Each road experiences one layer of injustice, but when the roads intersect and injustices combine, many lose vision of the problem. This illuminates a “useful frame” to analyze how social problems affect all members of a targeted group. According to Angelia Wilson, the different aspects of intersectionality are structural intersectionality, political intersectionality and cultural intersectionality.

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 defined as the interrelated nature of societal classifications such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, viewed as generating intersecting and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage. In order to study these social formations one must understand “how they mutually construct one another” (Collins, 62).