Intersectionality In My Life

This essay will be unpacking and analysing the different elements that create my own intersectionality in my life. This essay will be discussing how class, gender/sex and race have influenced who I am and the experiences I have had throughout my life, and how various structures impact these experiences, with reference to the Crenshaw and Dill and Zambara articles, I will connect their thoughts and ideas to the intersectionality of my own life.
I am an African, black female who grew up in a predominantly white environment around my living space, and attended a predominantly white private school. In relation to class, I have been fortunate and privileged enough to be placed in a living environment that allowed me to receive the best education,

Remember to always be aware of who you are, and that as a woman, I would face many challenges in society. In my youth, much of these family discussions were passing conversation until I reached late high school and early university days that I realised my challenges and disadvantages of being a female. For the first time in my life, university opened my eyes to the true meaning of misogyny, and how little female influence there was in the university systems, and in the workplace surrounding me. The older I became, the more exposed I was to the lack of diversity and equality women experienced, and I for one became a part of that as well. Drawing from the reading by Kimberle Crenshaw, she spoke about the antidiscrimination laws and how black female bodies’ experiences are not taken seriously in society, it captured my attention with relation to the intersectionality struggles I attempt to conquer on daily, religious basis. She is quoted saying in relation to the laws regarding black female bodies that, ‘antidiscrimination doctrine essentially erases Black women’s distinct experiences and, as a result, deems their discrimination complaints groundless.’(Crenshaw, 1989). Although this quote speaks of the black female body experience in law specifically, which is my personal story, I can draw points and information that can be relatable to my gender/sex. As a female, I

Attending a predominantly white school, white people were very interested, or rather over interested, in the so-called black culture. Being in a space that had minority black people, oppression was felt on the highest level. Anything that may have remotely involved the black skin, was downplayed and undermined, and more cases than one, my voice was silenced. From this experience, I started realising that wherever I may go, the female black body was not correctly or remotely represented positively in the media and in general society. For many years, as a regular television watcher, I began to realise that the media and entertainment industry did not put black women in power or inspiration, but women who are needy, sexual objects or women who play second best to men. In my educational systems, I have not been exposed to black lectures or teachers enough, and I realised that we were not being correctly and rightfully represented. As a black body, I am aware that I occupy space in a white environment, and that much of what I do is under the scope of white supremacy. Much of the experiences I have at my university are very much related to my racial profiling, and my level of intelligence is marked according to how I look eternally. Daily, I am constantly reminded that I am black as if it is something to be ashamed of social elite environment. In the article written by Dill and Zambara,