Intersectionality: a Holistic Approach to Understanding Oppression
Intersectionality is a concept that is growing in popularity, particularly at this time when there is an increased focus on the way different groups are marginalised by our society. In this blog I will try to give an outline of the meaning and history of this term as well as providing links to further resources in order to, hopefully, give you a better idea of what people mean when they talk about intersectionality.
The term was coined in the 1980’s by legal scholar and critical race theorist Kimberle Crenshaw. However, the concept has it’s genesis in the 1970s with the Combahee River Collective, a group of black lesbian socialist feminists who issued a statement highlighting the ways in which their experiences of oppression as black women were being missed, ignored and often perpetuated by both the feminist and anti-racist movements. They said:
This quote gets to the heart of my understanding of intersectionality; that different forms of oppression such as racism, sexism and class society are not wholly separate, but are in fact overlapping and mutually reinforcing processes. And where they overlap unique forms of disadvantage or oppression are created that can create obstacles for individuals that are often not accounted for by conventional ways of thinking about social justice advocacy.
Kimberle Crenshaw, in the 1980s, highlighted black women’s experiences of discrimination in employment. Black women were routinely discriminated against and denied employment, however, they faced great obstacles in challenging this discrimination. As far as the law was concerned, if a business employed black men then a case of racial discrimination could not be brought. And, if they employed white women then a case of sexual discrimination could not be brought. Despite being clear instances of racial-sexual discrimination, these women’s cases would be thrown out of court and never heard. As a result of not fitting wholly into any one category this discrimination was allowed to continue.
The concept of intersectionality was originally formed around the triad of race, sex and class, but has since been expanded to include more areas of potential privilege or disadvantage such as nation, sexuality, ability, age and ethnicity. Rather than viewing these as separate categories intersectionality offers us a lens through which to view race, class, gender, sexuality, etc. as mutually-reinforcing processes and social relations that materially play out in people’s everyday lives in incredibly complex ways. It is a holistic model that opens us up to seeing the myriad ways that these categories and social locations intersect, interact, and overlap to produce systemic social inequalities.
A common criticism of intersectionality is that it just focuses on the individual. Often too it is mis-portrayed as simply being about adding up all the areas of privilege or disadvantage that apply to us to see who is the most oppressed, but this is not a valid criticism in my opinion. Intersectionality opens us to the unique experiences of individuals caused by the different overlapping forms of oppression that affect them, but at the heart of intersectionality are the questions; How can we trace our individual experiences back to the systems that (re)produce them (and vice versa)? How can we trace the ways that these systems (re)produce one another? How can we smash them and create new social relations that foster freedom?
So, having given a brief outline of my understanding of intersectionality I want to now explain why I have chosen to discuss it in our blog.
I only learned about intersectionality in the last few years, but I have found that using an intersectional approach is vital in allowing me to be open to and empathise with the unique experiences of oppression faced by clients who come to me for counselling. The particular counselling model that we use at LPG is the Person Centred Approach which is a holistic model that seeks to allow for the whole of our experience. Fundamentally in my opinion that must include a holistic understanding of the ways in which our society marginalises people. All too often people working in the mental health field miss, ignore or perpetuate forms of oppression. The marginalisation and discrimination faced by people struggling with their mental health, both when seeking treatment and by wider society, is deserving of many blog posts in it’s own right, but that highlights to me how important it is that more people working in this field engage with the concept of intersectionality to ensure that we are actually supporting people in the ways that they require and not adding to their experience of being marginalised.
However, I do not want to imply that intersectionality should be limited to the therapy room. This is just one example of an area that would greatly benefit from more people taking an intersectional approach, but really this is a concept that I feel we would all benefit from engaging with. We live in a world where a great many people are disadvantaged, discriminated against and oppressed, but if we can figure out the ways that oppressive and exploitative social relations work together we are better equipped to tear them apart.
I feel that it is necessary to acknowledge that I am a white, cis-gendered male writing about a concept that has it’s roots in black feminism and centres upon the experience of the marginalised and oppressed. My race and gender (as well as many other factors such as being able bodied, being born into a middle class family in a Western nation, etc.) confer upon me a great amount of privilege in our society; I don’t need to worry about these aspects of my identity being used to disadvantage or discriminate against me and so, beyond some limited experiences of heterosexism, oppression is not something I can speak of from much experience. However, taking my cue from Adrienne Onday when she wrote “Your silence is violence to us,” I feel that, despite not being able to speak from experience, it is important for me to be using this platform to spread awareness of the injustices that are being allowed to exist in our world. Part of doing that though is elevating the voices of those who can speak from experience and so below is a list of resources, many of which I used to write this blog, which will offer further insight into this topic.
I hope that this blog will serve as an adequate introduction to the concept of intersectionality and an avenue for further learning.
Resources
Video: Kimberle Crenshaw – On Intersectionality
Article: Combahee River Collective – Combahee River Collective Statement
https://combaheerivercollective.weebly.com/the-combahee-river-collective-statement.html
Podcast: Kimberle Crenshaw – Under the Blacklight
Article: Elena Chamorro – Ableism and Intersectionality
Article: Adrienne Onday – Wrath Over Pride
Article: Abbey Volcano and J. Rogue – Insurrections at the Intersections
Article: Francis Dupuis-Deri – Is the State Part of the Matrix of Domination and Intersectionality?
By Paul Johnson