June 17, 2020 • 9 mins
Though it started as an obscure legal term, intersectionality has become the matter of some debate. Learn what it means and how it can help everyone out in this episode of BrainStuff.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio, Hey brain Stuff,
Lauren Vogelbaum. Here Before, relatively few people had ever heard
the word intersectionality, even though it was first coined in
nine as a legal term to describe intersecting areas of discrimination.
But today it's neither obscure nor uncontroversial. In some circles,
(00:26):
it's a politically polarizing buzzword. So how did this happen?
Let's start at the beginning. The term intersectionality was first
coined by Kimberly Crenshaw, a lawyer, law professor, and civil
rights activist. In nine she wrote an influential paper that
identified a glaring hole in anti discrimination law. The law
(00:46):
recognized categories such as racial discrimination and gender discrimination, but
was blind to the situations in which two or more
of those categories overlapped. Take the case of de graph
and Read versus General Motors, which Crenshaw cited in a
TED talk as an example of where the law fell
short of delivering justice. In this case, a black woman
(01:08):
named Emma degraffin Reed was denied a job at a
local car manufacturing plant, and she sued on the basis
of discrimination. The judge throughout the case, citing that the
plant had a record of hiring both black people and women,
so she had no grounds to sue. But Crenshaw argues
the judge missed the point. Yes the plant hired black people,
(01:29):
but those were all black men hired for industrial or
maintenance work. And yes the plant hired women, but those
were white women who worked as secretaries. But black women
didn't fit into either of those narrow hiring categories, so
they were effectively barred from employment at the plant. Since
there wasn't a word yet for this overlapping of identities
(01:51):
that combined to form new hybrid categories of discrimination, Crenshaw
invented one, and she called it intersectionality. We spoke with
Crenshaw and she said intersectionality was a prism to bring
to light dynamics withindiscrimination law that weren't being appreciated by
the courts. In particular, courts seemed to think that race
(02:12):
discrimination was what happened to all black people across gender
and sex discrimination was what happened to all women. And
if that is your framework, of course what happens to
black women and other women of color is going to
be difficult to see. So In its original sense, intersectionality
was a legal framework for seeing people whose identities and
(02:32):
lived experiences are more complex and who deserve equal treatment
under the law. Starting in the nineteen nineties, academics began
incorporating intersectionality theory into these social sciences. Up until that point,
there was a tendency to study the experiences of different racial, ethnic,
or religious groups as homogeneous blocks. We also spoke with
(02:55):
Mary Romero, a professor of Justice studies and social inquiry
at Arizona State University. She said the essentialist approach said
that all Latinos are like this, without considering that there
are all of these intersections of age, citizenship, sexuality, and disability,
so there's not a monolithic experience. By examining the specific
(03:15):
experiences of Latin X people who are lgbt Q, undocumented, rich,
and poor, social scientists came up with data that could
be used to inform important public policy decisions like immigration.
Romero said, if we're going to look at immigration policy
and see the ways in which it needs to be changed,
we have to take into consideration all the various conditions.
(03:37):
The argument would be, if you want to be inclusive
and you want to be just the policy has to
exist without privileging one group over another. Crenshaw may not
have invented the word intersectionality as a call for social justice,
but even she has come to see it that way.
In her TED talk, Crenshaw spoke about violence perpetrated against
(03:57):
black women and how this violence is often invisible in
the national discussion about implicit racial bias and policing. She
asked why Michael Brown and Tamua Rice were household names
but not Michelle Qusseau or Tanisha Anderson, two unarmed black
women also killed by police. Again, Crenshaw explained how intersectionality
(04:18):
provides a prism or frame in which to see people
whose experiences are often overlooked. She said, without frames that
allow us to see how social problems impact all the
members of a targeted group, many will fall through the
cracks of our movements, left to suffer in virtual isolation.
The idea of intersectionality has been taken up by a
(04:41):
lot of progressive organizations fighting for social equity and social justice.
There's a growing recognition that not all of the members
of an activist group fall into the same tidy categories
or share the same experiences in the world at y
W Boston, a community organization that grew out of one
of the nation's oldest chapters of y w c A,
(05:01):
they say that intersectionality is crucial to social equity work.
One post on their blog explains quote without an intersectional lens,
events and movements that aim to address injustice towards one
group may end up perpetuating systems of inequities toward other groups.
As an example, it's cited the seventeen Women's March, which
(05:22):
caught flak from transgender members of the movement because of
its vagina centric messaging. Some slogans chanted or written on
signs or t shirts or online focused on the vagina. Further,
some people both inside and outside of the march interpreted
the pink hats that many protesters war as representing female
outer genitalia. Y W Boston wrote, assuming that all women
(05:45):
have vaginas or are defined by their bodies is an
oversimplification that erases the experience of those who exist beyond
the gender binary. By avoiding language that assumes our own
experiences are baseline, we can open ourselves up to listening
to others points of view. The embrace of intersectionality by
the left has led to a backlash on the right.
(06:06):
Critics of intersectionality don't see it as a way of
including or seeing a broader diversity of experiences, but as
a type of political correctness on steroids. As conservative pundits
like Ben Shapiro see it, The goal of intersectionality is
to pit people against each other in a kind of
oppression olympics. He said in a video. Intersectionality is a
(06:28):
form of identity politics in which the value of your
opinion depends on how many victim groups you belong to.
At the bottom of the totem pole is the person
everybody loves to hate, the straight white male. The more
memberships you can claim and oppressed groups, the more aggrieved
you are, and the higher you rank. Conservative writer Andrew
Sullivan called intersectionality a new religion imposed on liberal college campuses.
(06:54):
He wrote, intersectionalities version of original sin is the power
of some identity groups over others. To overcome this sin,
you first need to confess i e. Check your privilege,
and subsequently live your life and order your thoughts in
a way that keeps the sin at bay. He says
that the result of this is that anyone not sufficiently
quote woke is shunned and their voice silenced. Romero at
(07:20):
Arizona State says that both campus activists and their critics
often missed the point of intersectionality. Romero says that she's
definitely had students who misuse it as a way of
separating the oppressed from the oppressors. Romero said, I've always
corrected them by using myself as an example. There are
times when I'm disadvantaged and other times when i have
(07:42):
advantages over other people. It's very rare to find somebody
who has absolutely no advantages in any situation. Romero explains
that the target of intersectionality shouldn't be an individual person,
but the structure in which that individual lives, works, or studies.
Is the structure designed to allow only one type of
person to succeed or does it give everyone equal access?
(08:06):
Seen that way, even the straight white male, who Shapiro
says is vilified benefits from some of those intersectional policies.
For example, a straight white male who comes from a
low income family, or one who has a learning disability
or a disorder like a d h D or PTSD.
Romero said, what's the white male's age, their class, their citizenship?
(08:29):
As we get older. For example, we have certain structural
disadvantages that we share with people who are disabled. In
the most just and equitable version of our world, we
all hope that there would be policies and institutions in
place that see us in the various circumstances of our
lives and give us all a fair crack at life, liberty,
(08:50):
and the pursuit of happiness. Today's episode was written by
Dave Ruse and produced by Tyler klang Or. More on
this and lots of other topics, visit how stuff works
dot com. Brain Stuff is production of I Heart Radio.
For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio, Hey brain Stuff,
Lauren Vogelbaum. Here Before, relatively few people had ever heard
the word intersectionality, even though it was first coined in
nine as a legal term to describe intersecting areas of discrimination.
But today it's neither obscure nor uncontroversial. In some circles,
(00:26):
it's a politically polarizing buzzword. So how did this happen?
Let's start at the beginning. The term intersectionality was first
coined by Kimberly Crenshaw, a lawyer, law professor, and civil
rights activist. In nine she wrote an influential paper that
identified a glaring hole in anti discrimination law. The law
(00:46):
recognized categories such as racial discrimination and gender discrimination, but
was blind to the situations in which two or more
of those categories overlapped. Take the case of de graph
and Read versus General Motors, which Crenshaw cited in a
TED talk as an example of where the law fell
short of delivering justice. In this case, a black woman
(01:08):
named Emma degraffin Reed was denied a job at a
local car manufacturing plant, and she sued on the basis
of discrimination. The judge throughout the case, citing that the
plant had a record of hiring both black people and women,
so she had no grounds to sue. But Crenshaw argues
the judge missed the point. Yes the plant hired black people,
(01:29):
but those were all black men hired for industrial or
maintenance work. And yes the plant hired women, but those
were white women who worked as secretaries. But black women
didn't fit into either of those narrow hiring categories, so
they were effectively barred from employment at the plant. Since
there wasn't a word yet for this overlapping of identities
(01:51):
that combined to form new hybrid categories of discrimination, Crenshaw
invented one, and she called it intersectionality. We spoke with
Crenshaw and she said intersectionality was a prism to bring
to light dynamics withindiscrimination law that weren't being appreciated by
the courts. In particular, courts seemed to think that race
(02:12):
discrimination was what happened to all black people across gender
and sex discrimination was what happened to all women. And
if that is your framework, of course what happens to
black women and other women of color is going to
be difficult to see. So In its original sense, intersectionality
was a legal framework for seeing people whose identities and
(02:32):
lived experiences are more complex and who deserve equal treatment
under the law. Starting in the nineteen nineties, academics began
incorporating intersectionality theory into these social sciences. Up until that point,
there was a tendency to study the experiences of different racial, ethnic,
or religious groups as homogeneous blocks. We also spoke with
(02:55):
Mary Romero, a professor of Justice studies and social inquiry
at Arizona State University. She said the essentialist approach said
that all Latinos are like this, without considering that there
are all of these intersections of age, citizenship, sexuality, and disability,
so there's not a monolithic experience. By examining the specific
(03:15):
experiences of Latin X people who are lgbt Q, undocumented, rich,
and poor, social scientists came up with data that could
be used to inform important public policy decisions like immigration.
Romero said, if we're going to look at immigration policy
and see the ways in which it needs to be changed,
we have to take into consideration all the various conditions.
(03:37):
The argument would be, if you want to be inclusive
and you want to be just the policy has to
exist without privileging one group over another. Crenshaw may not
have invented the word intersectionality as a call for social justice,
but even she has come to see it that way.
In her TED talk, Crenshaw spoke about violence perpetrated against
(03:57):
black women and how this violence is often invisible in
the national discussion about implicit racial bias and policing. She
asked why Michael Brown and Tamua Rice were household names
but not Michelle Qusseau or Tanisha Anderson, two unarmed black
women also killed by police. Again, Crenshaw explained how intersectionality
(04:18):
provides a prism or frame in which to see people
whose experiences are often overlooked. She said, without frames that
allow us to see how social problems impact all the
members of a targeted group, many will fall through the
cracks of our movements, left to suffer in virtual isolation.
The idea of intersectionality has been taken up by a
(04:41):
lot of progressive organizations fighting for social equity and social justice.
There's a growing recognition that not all of the members
of an activist group fall into the same tidy categories
or share the same experiences in the world at y
W Boston, a community organization that grew out of one
of the nation's oldest chapters of y w c A,
(05:01):
they say that intersectionality is crucial to social equity work.
One post on their blog explains quote without an intersectional lens,
events and movements that aim to address injustice towards one
group may end up perpetuating systems of inequities toward other groups.
As an example, it's cited the seventeen Women's March, which
(05:22):
caught flak from transgender members of the movement because of
its vagina centric messaging. Some slogans chanted or written on
signs or t shirts or online focused on the vagina. Further,
some people both inside and outside of the march interpreted
the pink hats that many protesters war as representing female
outer genitalia. Y W Boston wrote, assuming that all women
(05:45):
have vaginas or are defined by their bodies is an
oversimplification that erases the experience of those who exist beyond
the gender binary. By avoiding language that assumes our own
experiences are baseline, we can open ourselves up to listening
to others points of view. The embrace of intersectionality by
the left has led to a backlash on the right.
(06:06):
Critics of intersectionality don't see it as a way of
including or seeing a broader diversity of experiences, but as
a type of political correctness on steroids. As conservative pundits
like Ben Shapiro see it, The goal of intersectionality is
to pit people against each other in a kind of
oppression olympics. He said in a video. Intersectionality is a
(06:28):
form of identity politics in which the value of your
opinion depends on how many victim groups you belong to.
At the bottom of the totem pole is the person
everybody loves to hate, the straight white male. The more
memberships you can claim and oppressed groups, the more aggrieved
you are, and the higher you rank. Conservative writer Andrew
Sullivan called intersectionality a new religion imposed on liberal college campuses.
(06:54):
He wrote, intersectionalities version of original sin is the power
of some identity groups over others. To overcome this sin,
you first need to confess i e. Check your privilege,
and subsequently live your life and order your thoughts in
a way that keeps the sin at bay. He says
that the result of this is that anyone not sufficiently
quote woke is shunned and their voice silenced. Romero at
(07:20):
Arizona State says that both campus activists and their critics
often missed the point of intersectionality. Romero says that she's
definitely had students who misuse it as a way of
separating the oppressed from the oppressors. Romero said, I've always
corrected them by using myself as an example. There are
times when I'm disadvantaged and other times when i have
(07:42):
advantages over other people. It's very rare to find somebody
who has absolutely no advantages in any situation. Romero explains
that the target of intersectionality shouldn't be an individual person,
but the structure in which that individual lives, works, or studies.
Is the structure designed to allow only one type of
person to succeed or does it give everyone equal access?
(08:06):
Seen that way, even the straight white male, who Shapiro
says is vilified benefits from some of those intersectional policies.
For example, a straight white male who comes from a
low income family, or one who has a learning disability
or a disorder like a d h D or PTSD.
Romero said, what's the white male's age, their class, their citizenship?
(08:29):
As we get older. For example, we have certain structural
disadvantages that we share with people who are disabled. In
the most just and equitable version of our world, we
all hope that there would be policies and institutions in
place that see us in the various circumstances of our
lives and give us all a fair crack at life, liberty,
(08:50):
and the pursuit of happiness. Today's episode was written by
Dave Ruse and produced by Tyler klang Or. More on
this and lots of other topics, visit how stuff works
dot com. Brain Stuff is production of I Heart Radio.
For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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