Monday, 11 October 2021, 12:05 pmArticle: Fightback
By BRONWEN BEECHEY
The conceptof intersectionality originates from a 1989 article byKimberl Crenshaw, a law studies professor and one of thefounders of Critical Race Theory. While Critical Race Theory(CRT) has become one of the latest spectres haunting theright-wing in the US, it originated in the 1980s and 90samong a group of legal scholars, including Crenshaw, whotook issue with the liberal consensus that discriminationand racism in the law were irrational and that once theirrational distortions of bias were removed, the underlyinglegal and socioeconomic order would revert to a neutral,benign state of impersonally apportioned justice.Crenshaw and other CRT founders argued that racism was notan aberration that could be legislated out of existence,highlighting the continuing economic inequality betweenwhites and minorities, and the lack of minorityrepresentation in supposedly colour-blind institutionssuch as universities. Instead, Crenshaw wrote,discrimination continued due to the stubborn endurance ofthe structures of white dominance in other words, theAmerican legal and political system was inherentlyracist.
The concept of intersectionality came from theideas debated in CRT. Crenshaws 1989 article,Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A BlackFeminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, FeministTheory and Antiracist Politics, published in theUniversity of Chicago Legal Forum, centred on threelegal cases that dealt with issues of both racial and sexdiscrimination. Each case, Crenshaw argued, demonstrated thelimitations of a single-issue analysis of how the lawconsiders racism and sexism.
For example,DeGraffenreid v General Motors was a 1976 case wherefive black women sued General Motors over its senioritypolicy. General Motors never hired black women until 1964,and so when seniority-based layoffs occurred after arecession in the early 1970s, all of the black women werelaid off. The women argued that General Motors senioritypolicy was discriminatory on both racial and gender grounds.However, the court refused to consider the two categoriestogether, stating in the words of the judge that blackwomen could not be considered as a separate, protectedclass, as to do so would open up a Pandoras box ofminorities who would demand protection by thelaw.
Crenshaw argued that the 1976 case and othersignored the specific challenges facing black women as agroup. She wrote:
The point is thatBlack women can experience discrimination in any number ofways and that the contradiction arises from our assumptionsthat their claims of exclusion must be unidirectional.Consider an analogy to traffic in an intersection, comingand going in all four directions. Discrimination, liketraffic through an intersection, may flow in one direction,and it may flow in another. If an accident happens in anintersection, it can be caused by cars traveling from anynumber of directions and, sometimes, from all of them.Similarly, if a Black woman is harmed because she is in theintersection, her injury could result from sexdiscrimination or racediscrimination.
In a 2017 interview,Crenshaw said that Intersectionality is a lens throughwhich you can see where power comes and collides, where itinterlocks and intersects. Its not simply that theresa race problem here, a gender problem here, and a class orLBGTQ problem there. Many times, that framework erases whathappens to people who are subject to all of thesethings.
Intersectionality is also linked with thedevelopment of identity politics, a concept that was firstarticulated in a public statement by a black feminist socialwork, the Combahee River Collective. The statementhighlighted the need to develop a politics that wasanti-racist, unlike those of white women, and anti-sexist,unlike those of black men. Itconcluded:
Our politics evolve from ahealthy love for ourselves, our sisters and our communitywhich allows us to continue our struggle and work. Thisfocusing upon our own oppression is embodied in the conceptof identity politics. We believe that the most profound andpotentially most radical politics come directly out of ourown identity, as opposed to working to end somebody elsesoppression.
Identity politics wascriticised by many on the left, on the basis that itencouraged an inward-looking focus that elevated differencesbetween activists and emphasised the importance of livedexperience over the development of solidarity betweendifferent groups. It was also criticised for creatinghierarchies of oppression where the more types ofoppression an individual suffered from, the higher theirstatus. Others pointed out that identity politics wasco-opted by the mainstream political parties, allowing themto present progressive legislation on womens rights andLGBT+ issues while continuing their austerity policiestoward workers and the poor. Intersectionality can be seen,at least in part, as a response to the limitations ofidentity politics, although the terms are sometimes usedinterchangeably.
The concept of intersectionality wasquickly picked up by other academics, who applied it toqueer theory, feminist legal theory and numerous studies onrace, gender and sexuality. Over time, it began to appearoutside academia. In 2015, intersectionality was addedto the Oxford English Dictionary, and shortly after the termbecame widely, though not always accurately, used inmainstream media. It quickly became associated with NorthAmerican feminist campaigns such as Me Too and the 2017Womens March on Washington. As a result,intersectionality was added to the vocabulary ofright-wingers as a term of abuse, along with politicalcorrectness, cancel culture and privilegechecking. It was variously described as a new castesystem, a conspiracy theory of victimisation, andrepresenting a form of feminism that puts a label on you.It tells you how oppressed you are. It tells you whatyoure allowed to say, what youre allowed tothink.
Interestingly, a number of conservativecommentators have acknowledged that intersectionality as anidea or legal concept is valid. Right-wing commentator BenShapiro, who has described intersectionality as reallydangerous, told Vox that the originalarticulation of the idea by Crenshaw is accurate and not aproblem The issue for conservatives is the application ofintersectionality beyond the academic sphere, where it isperceived as an attempt to invert an existing hierarchy ofoppression so that white, straight, cisgender men are on thebottom. In response, Crenshaw points out that her aim is notto replicate existing power dynamics but to remove thosepower dynamics altogether. She adds that There havealways been people, from the very beginning of the civilrights movement, who had denounced the creation of equalityrights on the grounds that it takes something away fromthem.
Less predictably, intersectionality has alsobeen criticised by left-wing and Marxist commentators. Thesecritiques are focused on the role of class, which isrecognised in intersectional theory as a form of oppression,but not given any more importance than other forms such asrace, gender or sexuality; whereas Marxism traditionallyviews class as the primary form of oppression. Some of thesearguments have been crudely reductionist, arguing that anydiscussion of race, gender and sexuality is a diversion fromthe class struggle. These arguments seem to assume that theworking class is composed primarily of white men, asituation that has not existed for at least the past 30years, if ever.
Other Marxist scholars, such asBarbara Foley, Eve Mitchell and Asad Haider, recognise theimportance of anti-racist, feminist and queer issues, butargue that these identities are largely a product ofcapitalist social relations. According toFoley:
...the ways in which raceand genderas modes of oppressionhave historically beenshaped by the division of labor can and should be understoodwithin the explanatory framework supplied by class analysis,which foregrounds the issue of exploitation, that is, of theprofits gained from the extraction of what Marx calledsurplus value from the labor of those who produce thethings that society needs.
EveMitchell describes intersectional theory as in part, aresponse to the marginalisation of women of colour in the1960s and 1970s feminist, Black Power, and other anti-racistorganisations. She states:
It isimportant to note that identity politics andintersectionality theorists are not wrong, but they areincomplete. Patriarchal and racialized social relations arematerial, concrete and real. So are the contradictionsbetween the particular and universal, and the appearance andessence. The solution must build upon these contradictionsand push on them...Embracing womanhood, organizing on thebasis of blackness, and building a specifically queerpolitics is an essential aspect of our liberation. It is thematerial starting point ofstruggle.
However, both Mitchell andHaider argue, the essential next step is to move beyondorganising around identity and towards an understanding thatsolidarity between all those oppressed by capitalism is theonly way to defeat it.
Other Marxist commentatorsargue that there is no incompatibility betweenintersectionality and Marxism. Sofa Saio Gradin, a queernon-binary Marxist, writes:
Radicalqueerness and anti-racism are not forms of identitypolitics; and class struggle is not free from questions ofidentity. All forms of social life are already coded byclass, race, gender and disability, so there are no forms ofpolitics or struggle that exist outside these structures ofsocial power. The claim that intersectional critiquesdistract from the real struggle or are divisive isbased on a fundamental misunderstanding of bothintersectionality and socialism: the question is not whetherthe two can be integrated, buthow.
In her 2020 book, Marxism andIntersectionality: Race, Gender, Class and Sexuality underContemporary Capitalism, Ashley Bohrer also argues thata thorough analysis of capitalism requires insights andtools from both Marxist and intersectional traditions.She adds, in a recent interview:
Wecant understand race (in its gendered, sexualised,ability-laden senses) without understanding that the modernnotion of race was invented in a capitalist world, that weall experience race in a capitalist world. There is noseparating any of these categories from capitalism and thereis no separating capitalism from race, gender, sexuality,ability or nationality.
The role ofintersectionality in Aotearoa New Zealand is particularlyrelevant in a nation that Marxists describe as acolonial-settler state. Like Australia, Canada and theUnited States, Aotearoa New Zealand was settled by Europeansas part of an imperialist project, where the colonisingnation (England) displaced and often physically extinguishedthe indigenous population with the aim of seizing itsresources. Later waves of migration brought othernationalities in, particularly Pacific Islanders who wereused as a cheap labour force following the post-Second WorldWar boom. As a result, a large percentage of the workingclass in New Zealand (if not the majority) are Mori,Pasefika or other ethnicities such as Chinese or Indian.This has given class struggle an intersectional dimension.To give one example, the support of unions for theoccupation of Takaparawhau/Bastion Point in the 1970s wasinstrumental in ensuring that, even after the occupation wasviolently ended by police and army, construction was notable to proceed.
The effects of the current COVID-19pandemic in Aotearoa NZ also can be seen through anintersectional lens. The most affected community in the waveof the delta strain has been the Pasefika community. This isdue to several factors. Firstly, many of the essentialworkers who have been working through the lockdowns medical staff, retail workers, supply chain and transportworkers are Pasefika or Mori and therefore at greaterrisk. These workers are low paid and generally live insubstandard, overcrowded housing. It is also customary inPasefika and Mori cultures for elderly family members tobe cared for at home by relatives, meaning that COVID-19(particularly the Delta variant) spreads rapidly and affectsboth the old and the very young.
The importance of thechurch to the majority of Pasefika families has resulted insuper-spreader events at large church services, and somechurches have shared anti-vax conspiracy theories amongtheir followers. Historical memories of the Dawn Raids andracism has created an understandable distrust of government;and there are many in the community who have overstayed workvisas and are reluctant to go to vaccination or testingcentres (although there is no restriction on eligibility dueto immigration status).
Added to this is the chronicunderfunding of health services, particularly in SouthAuckland where the majority of Pacific peopleslive.
The low vaccination rate among Mori can alsobe explained by the legacy of colonialism, where Mori weredispossessed of their land and food sources, had theirlanguage and culture suppressed and lost thousands todiseases introduced by the settlers. Mori in rural areashave limited access to health services and transport.Disinformation about vaccines has also had an impact,feeding into general distrust of government and healthpolicies that have disadvantaged and discriminated againstMori in the past.
Taking an intersectional approachmeans supporting efforts by Mori and Pasefika communitiesto organise vaccination and testing at marae, churches andother sites where community members feel comfortable, and todevelop resources in their own languages to encouragevaccination and counter disinformation. It means supportingefforts by Mori and Pasefika to counter food insecurity.It means calling on the government to increase benefits andwages and build more public housing. And it means supportingthe fight against climate change, which in many areas isalready being led by Pasefika and Mori youth.
TheCOVID-19 pandemic is showing us that capitalism is preparedto sacrifice millions of lives to keep its profits coming.The majority of those lives are those of the poor and peopleof colour. At the same time, there have been countlessexamples of solidarity in responding to the pandemic. Thissolidarity can be built upon a basis of understanding thatdifferent people experience oppression in different ways, aswell as understanding the common cause of that oppression a system that considers certain lives to be expendableso that the rich can survive.
This was written forFightback's magazine issue on class. Subscribe to themagazine here.
Scoop Media
Become a member Find out more
Excerpt from:
Intersectionality And Class | Scoop News - Scoop.co.nz
- Government Oppression Of Climate Protesters Is Rampant. Are You Next? - CleanTechnica - February 5th, 2024 [February 5th, 2024]
- Invasion Day protests oppose oppression of indigenous Australians, genocide in Gaza - WSWS - February 5th, 2024 [February 5th, 2024]
- Florida's 'hostile' laws? Five laws NAACP listed in travel advisory. - St. Augustine Record - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- Iran Faces A Huge Budget Deficit It Tries To Conceal - - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- Satyendar Jain taken to Safdarjung Hospital after losing 35 kgs - The Statesman - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- Opinion: Reassessing the approach to Israel | DW | 22.05.2023 - DW - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- Durham Report Is Latest Choose-Your-Own-Reality Adventure - TIME - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- In Conversation with Stan Grant - Honi Soit - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- Rep. Bare: Assembly Republicans' local government funding plan is ... - WisPolitics.com - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- Never Again Is Right Now in Palestine - Jacobin magazine - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- UF community condemns bill defunding DEI initiatives - The Independent Florida Alligator - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- Prices of basic commodities and foods have gone insane in Sierra ... - Sierra Leone Telegraph - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- Don't cancel Gladstone. He was a true friend of freedom at home ... - The Telegraph - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- If you want to do things like gender ideology, go to Berkeley: DeSantis bans diversity, equity and inclusion in Florida colleges - The Mercury News - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- TikTok: The new frontier for political info-wars - DAWN.com - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- Israeli Apartheid - The Legacy of the Ongoing Nakba at 75 [EN/AR ... - ReliefWeb - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- PPP's CEC condemns attacks on army installations, calls for ... - Pakistan Today - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- Tim Scott says Im running for president of the United States in announcement speech live - The Guardian US - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- Opinion | America's Poverty Is Built by Design - POLITICO - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- 'Pity these oppressed random attackers': Inside the thoughts of Canada's bail system - National Post - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- How Can We Resist Book Bans? This Banned Author Has Ideas. - Truthout - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- Owners of Nigeria and their multiple worlds - Guardian Nigeria - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- When People Decide They Want Change, They Will Bring in Change - The Wire - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- 5 Interesting Facts about Simon Bolivar - The Collector - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- China Built Over A Million Uyghurs "Re-Education Camps" In 6 Years: Report - NDTV - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- Queer folk, the hour to save ourselves has come - Daily Maverick - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- Preposterous! Book ban adds bureaucracy and removes parents ... - IndyStar - May 22nd, 2023 [May 22nd, 2023]
- End Jew Hatred: Fight for social justice must be above political fray - The Jerusalem Post - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Political strife, not protest anymore - The Korea JoongAng Daily - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- 'A Man Without a Gun Is Not a Citizen' - The Texas Observer - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- State Department Report Says China Oppressed Tibetan Buddhist ... - Central Tibetan Administration - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Facing Reality on South Africa - Council on Foreign Relations - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Federal Charges of Political Activists Show the Racist and ... - Left Voice - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Age of Disorder || Pakistan on the Brink: Down with Capitalist PDM ... - International Socialist - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Tim Stevenson | Living with the Long Emergency: Rising Fascism ... - Brattleboro Reformer - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Members of new City Council weigh in on water bills - CBS Chicago - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- DIIR Statement on 28th Anniversary of Enforced Disappearance of ... - Central Tibetan Administration - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- KAN-WIN shares timeline of gender-based violence toward Asian ... - Daily Northwestern - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Alleged leaker fixated on guns and envisioned 'race war' - The Washington Post - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Employment and Labour pays tribute to Dr Dennis George - South African Government - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Opinion | Trump Cannot Be Unseen - The New York Times - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Toronto to rally against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia ... - NOW Toronto - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Election 2023: Te Pti Mori accuses Prime Minister Chris Hipkins of 'oppression' for telling parties to 'be careful' with demands - Newshub - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- What's the current state of LGBTQ rights in Europe? - Euronews - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Baptist Health Foundation Receives $3 Million Gift from the Jos ... - South Florida Hospital News - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- The Politics and Moral Economics of Seun Kutis Police Assault - Tekedia - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Is a temporary coalition of anger against the old regime a basis for ... - Sierra Leone Telegraph - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Mexico: against 'neoliberalism' or capitalism? The final year of ... - In Defence of Marxism - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- White Christian Nationalism and the 2023 Montana Legislature ... - Daily Montanan - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Left-wing lawmakers press for federal reparations for Black Americans: 'We're here to demand it' - Fox News - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Underground cyphers are helping young Kashmiris reclaim their ... - Huck Magazine - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Tory MP uses controversial term connected to antisemitic conspiracies - The Jerusalem Post - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Fijis 1987 coup: Why did Prime Minister Rabuka apologise to the Indo-Fijian community? - The Indian Express - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Declaration on the Migrant Crisis: Socialists From the U.S., Mexico ... - Left Voice - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- WNBA star Brittney Griner standing and listening to national anthem - Gainesville Sun - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Imran Khan to unveil next plan of action at a rally on Thursday - ANI News - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Delta Youths Threaten Showdown Over Exclusion In Multi-Billion ... - SaharaReporters.com - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Remarks by Homeland Security Advisor Dr. Liz Sherwood-Randall ... - The White House - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- Are some human rights more important than others? Religious ... - Jacksonville Journal-Courier - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- Postcolonial Plague: The Legacy of Apartheid South Africa in ... - Brown Political Review - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- UN expert urges Japan to step up pressure on Myanmar junta - OHCHR - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- CSIS confirms to MP that he and family were targeted by China - The Globe and Mail - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- Opposition leader says govt sent a bureaucrat to talk with calan - Duvar English - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- The Badger Herald Editorial Board: The bounds of free speech The ... - The Badger Herald - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- AIbom NLC to Set up Monitoring Team on Petroleum Products - THISDAY Newspapers - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- Amplifying Iranian Voices: The Call for Freedom and Democracy ... - National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- As inequality deepens, who will rewrite the rules? - Al Jazeera English - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- Discover the Brilliance of George Orwell: Books That Will Inspire You - Economic Times - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- Nature has way of settling scores, says UP CM Yogi Adityanath on Atiq Ahmad's turf - Times of India - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- Tens of thousands hold Labor Day rallies nationwide - The Korea Herald - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- Incoming Nigerian Government Must Improve Poverty Wage ... - SaharaReporters.com - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- Can the European Union Tackle Afghanistan's Crises? - The Diplomat - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- Iran sees nationwide protests, night rallies marking Int'l Labor Day | - The Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- G20: Responsibilities of the people of PoK - ANI News - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- From IWD to May Day: Connecting working women's struggles - Spring Magazine - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- 1 May 2023 || The Working Class is Back! ISA - International Socialist - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- Are the Marxists on to something? Catholic World Report - Catholic World Report - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- Manoj Kumar Jha and Ghazala Jamil write: Why Pratap Bhanu Mehta is wrong about social justice politics and caste census - The Indian Express - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- Generational crimes are being committed thick and fast. No wonder Australian kids dont vote conservative - The Guardian - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- A Proclamation on Jewish American Heritage Month, 2023 - U.S. ... - US Embassy and Consulate in Poland - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]