by Jasmine
With hashtag feminism and woke twitter changing the way we talk about social justice issues, certain terms and concepts have joined the public discourse. One of these words is intersectionality. If you're active on social media, you've probably seen #intersectionality on a post, someone with "intersectional feminist" in their bio, or some version of the quote "If your feminism isn't intersectional, it isn't feminism." There's even mugs, pins, and t-shirts with intersectionality slapped on them.
This term has become trendy and misinterpreted. My goal in writing this is to provide some clarity about what intersectionality actually means and it's purpose. I also want to discuss how intersectionality has been co-opted by white women and provide a brief history lesson. So let's get into it.
Intersectionality is a theoretical framework used to understand how a person's identities interact to shape their experiences. Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term intersectionality in 1989 when she wrote "Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics." She wrote the article to critique how single-axis frameworks erase Black women. Basically, Crenshaw says that because antiracist policy and feminist theory each focus on just one form of oppression, Black women have been ignored. While Black women may experience racism similar to Black men, or sexism similar to white women, their intersecting identities cause them to also experience "double discrimination." Furthermore, they face discrimination unique to Black women, not merely as the sum of racism and sexism.
The whole purpose of intersectionality is to provide a framework for discussing how race, class, gender, and other identities intersect, particularly for Black women. Historically, Black women have been aware of their multiple, interlocking identities. Perhaps you've heard of intersectionality's ancestors: Sojourner Truth's "Aint I a Woman?" (1851) and Frances Beal's "Double Jeopardy" (1969). Intersectionality is nothing new, white women just got ahold of it and made cute t-shirts.
I do not believe that it is my place to say whether white women should use the word intersectionality because I did not coin the term. Only Kimberlé Crenshaw can decide. But I can say that white women calling themselves intersectional feminists doesn't sit well with me. A lot of this comes from how I understand intersectionality and the actions of white women throughout history. White women do not have a good track record when it comes to viewing Black women as women. Just ask Ida B. Wells and Frances Harper or Florynce Kennedy and Margaret Sloan.
White women have the ability to choose their race over their gender, something Black women cannot do. They are complacent in the face of racism and have a vested interest in upholding white supremacy. White feminists, specifically, have gained consciousness of sexism by comparing their struggles to Black people's. During the first wave, we have suffragists arguing that women are like slaves. Then there's the second wave, with feminists saying there are many parallels between the treatment of Black people and women. And of course, the 53% of white women who voted for Trump then showed out for a women's march. When white feminists say things like "Women are the n-word of the world," they erase Black women and make it clear that they're more concerned about themselves.
I take issue with the way that white women have taken intersectionality to talk about how their gender interlocks with other oppressive systems because it further marginalizes Black women and ignores the original purpose of the word. White feminists have co-opted intersectionality in order to play the Oppression Olympics. It feels like intersectionality is becoming about how many of the "isms" and "phobias" a person faces.
Words mean things and using them without knowing their historical context is problematic. White women's use of intersectionality to discuss their experiences ignores the decades of work by Black feminists. Black women embody intersectionality by just existing and it is necessary to respect the language they have created.
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i said some form of "intersectionality" 25 times lol