The Intersection of Race, Gender, and Sexuality
Ray Block Jr.
Fall Semester, 2020
Overview
- What is intersectionality?
- Why is it important?
- What have we learned? (Discussion of the readings)
What is intersectionality?
What is intersectionality?
- rejects the separability of categories of difference (e.g., gender, race, sexuality, class, etc.)
- conceptualizes categories not as distinct but as permeated by other categories
What is intersectionality?
intellectual origins (part 1):
- Black feminist thought
- multiracial feminism
- critical race theory
What is intersectionality?
intellectual origins (part 2):
- K. Crenshaw coined the term
- B. Hooks and P. H. Collins study intersecting oppressions
- similar to Cohambee River Collective’s simultaneity
- shows up in Incidents in the Life of A Slave Girl
What is intersectionality?
challenges forms of group essentialism that:
- emphasize some identity categories over others
- marginalize and/or erase the experiences of minorities
What is intersectionality?
intersectionality = anti-racist/anti-sexist/liberatory activism:
- it recognizes (and challenges) overlapping structures of oppression affecting marginalized groups
What is intersectionality?
look beyond the categories!
- intersectionality is a theory about power that sometimes gets confused as a theory about identit(ies)
Why is intersectionality important?
Why is intersectionality important?
- arguably one of the most important theories of inequality
- also one of the least [well-] understood theories
Why is intersectionality important?
misunderstandings lead to ongoing debates over whether:
- academics can stay true to its activist origins
- it has room for other (less-marginalized) groups
- it can (should) apply to majory-group identities
- we can (should) study it quantitatively
What have we learned?
some things to ponder WRT the intersectionality readings:
- what does it tell us about politics in general?
- what does it tell us about the 2020 elections in particular?