Intersectionality


     To understand this blog, where I am coming from, and why I am the way I am, or I feel the way I do, you need to understand what intersectionality is.   

    Merriam-Webster's Dictionary defines intersectionality as "the complex, cumulative way in which the effects of multiple forms of discrimination (such as racism, sexism, and classism) combine, overlap, or intersect, especially in the experiences of marginalized individuals or groups. Professor Kimberle Crenshaw coined this term in 1989 in one of her term papers about African-American women's oppression. It started with the feminist movement, where women of color found it challenging to identify with white feminism, which was the mainstream movement. The now-famous term describes how race, class, gender, sex, religion, culture, disability, etc., describes a person, which allows people to understand/know who they are, and the best way to serve them. 
 
 Knowing your intersectionality and the intersectionality of the people you work and learn with is essential in building relationships and creating a community who is mindful of each other's views and identities. To understand and respect a person's intersectionality is to recognize each person holistically: see them as people much more extensive than one identity. It is complex, but each person's complexity makes them unique. Don't confuse complexity as layers that need to be peeled to get to the source or the person. Instead, see complexity as part of understanding the whole person: where they come from, who they are, why they may think or feel the way they do. Knowing a person's intersectionality gives you a snapshot or a small image and understanding of who they are. Please, do not think that knowing their intersectionality means you know the person's whole life story. You see a fraction of the person, not the whole. However, it is the start of understanding and getting to know the person. 



  The best way I learned intersectionality was by looking at a Venn Diagram in my Gender and Identity Studies class with Keri Graham at Saint Martin's University. The K-12 system exposed me to many Venn diagrams as a tool to compare and contrast two things. Similarly, intersectionality is that. Where the many different identities come together and form the middle, which is the person. A Venn diagram was the easiest way for me to understand intersectionality. It was about the coming together of all things different yet are the same person's identities. 

  So I ask you today, what is your intersectionality? How do you identify? How do you use your identity to understand the world around you and the people beside you? How do you use your intersection to help make the world a better place?

Until next time,
M.

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