Kimberle Crenshaw is an American
civil rights activist and a Professor of Law at UCLA. A graduate of Cornell
University, Harvard University, and the University of Wisconsin, Crenshaw has
focused much of her research on the concept of critical race theory. About 30
years ago, through the research she was doing on critical race theory, she
coined the term “intersectionality.” According to Crenshaw, intersectionality
is “an analytical framework for understanding how aspects of a person’s social
and political identities combine to create different modes of discrimination and
privilege.”[1]
Identity
is a relatively modern concept that consists of individual characteristics or personality
traits that differentiate one person from another, and significantly relies on relationship.
We all have different ways that we identify ourselves whether it be by gender,
race, sexuality, religion, ability etc. As Rod Michalko, a retired professor of
disability studies at the University of Toronto, states, “In a social world,
others use our identity to define us and we use it to define ourselves.”[2]
More often than
not, a person will have more than one social identity. Intersectionality is the
interconnectedness of our various social identities that often overlap and can
either provide us with great privilege or horrendous discrimination. For
example, I am a white man and enjoy all the privilege that comes with that
identity. However, I am also part of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community because I am
transgender. So, while I can enjoy white privilege, I am also at risk of
experiencing discrimination for being queer.
Society has
divided people into segmented groups, most of which will experience
discrimination in one form or another. This is exponentially so if that person
falls into more than one segmented group. For example, a lesbian African-American
woman falls into three oppressed categories of social identity that all
intersect into a single person who will likely experience two to three times
the amount of discrimination in comparison to others.
While these segmented
groups might bring on oppression, they can also bring community and support. There
is a togetherness that can be found when you surround yourself with people who identify
in the same way as you do. It may or may not happen on purpose, but it’s human
nature to gravitate toward those who look, act, think, and speak like you. Especially
within oppressed minority groups, this togetherness, defined as identity politics,
becomes very important because those who experience similar oppression will
come together to fight for social justice.
For example, one
of my identities is as a transgender male, which places me within the 2SLGBTQIA+
community. In the fall of 2023, there was a movement to stop queer and gender
studies being added to sexual education classes in the schools with claims that
the classes would influence more “transgender fads” in the student body. This
movement included protests of government buildings across the country. In
response, the transgender community throughout Canada, using social media to
communicate with each other, initiated counter protests. We had to use our
identity to be visible for both the politicians with the power to enact change,
and to everyone out there who might have been thinking they were alone in this
fight.
When we talk about
these social segments, they are often called labels and many people will say
that they don’t want to use labels, whether on themselves or on others. I
suppose I can understand that because who wants to be put into a box? Labels can
cause conflict if you make assumptions because there are identities that aren’t
visible. You can safely assume that every person is someone’s child, but not
everyone is a parent or a sibling. You can’t tell by looking at a person if
they are religious, able-bodied, or 2SLGBTQIA+. Even considering race and
ethnicity you can’t always tell simply by looking. So, what if we stopped using
labels? Would it change anything. If everyone simply identified as human, as I’ve
heard in some arguments regarding the transgender community, would that stop all
oppression?
I seriously doubt
it. I think that while there is power to be had and held, there will always be
oppression. Unfortunately, these power dynamics are almost exclusively based on
identities and labels, so those who have power will never want to be rid of
labels. Although, because of privilege, they are able to disregard the labels
they so cling to. Such as someone who identifies as white denying that white supremacy
exists. This person has the privilege to disregard their white label.[3] Conversely, those who fall
into boxes, labels, or identities, can be comforted by them because it allows for
community to be formed.
While it would be
lovely to one day live in a world with labels, our identity will always be what
makes us who we are. The important question is whether or not we will ever see
an end to the oppression of our fellow human beings simply because of those identities.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BnAW4NyOak
[2]
Michalko, Rod. “Introduction” in Rod Michalko, The Difference That
Disability Makes. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2002, p. 5.
[3] Harvey, Jennifer. “Disrupting the Normal: Queer Family Life as Sacred Work,” in Kathleen T Talvacchia, Michael F Pettinger, and Mark Larrimore, editors, Queer Christianities: Lived Religion in Transgressive Forms. New York: New York University Press, 2015, p. 107.
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