In Kimberle Crenshaw's definition of intersectionality there are three different aspects that make up the term, separated as followed: Structural, Political, and Representational. In this essay, I will first explain Crenshaw’s concept of intersectionality. I will then explain how intersectionality contributes to Critical Race Theory in furthering the critical understanding of law, mainly by using her examples of violence against women of color. I will also provide my own examples of intersectionality, which is the 2005 Hurricane Katrina disaster as it supports Crenshaw's understanding and the notion of identity politics she addressed. Crenshaw's concept of intersectionality suggests we take into account the intergroup and intra-group differences …show more content…
such as race, gender, and even class as not one category, but as multiple and converge dimensions (Crenshaw 1242). Intersectionality reflects the reality of our lives as there is no single identity category that suitably describes how we respond to our social environment, in which multiple identities are experienced (Shields 301). In her article, Crenshaw explores identity politics as the idea of social empowerment and reconstruction of certain groups. The problems with identity politics is not that it failed to transcend beyond the differences of intragroups, but it overlooks and ignores these differences (Crenshaw 1242). This is clearly seen in her example of violence against women of color, where the women were classified or subjected by either race or gender, and not as both dimensions. This is problematic as the experiences of women of color are often ignored as the issue is seen as one-sided and left completely unaddressed (Crenshaw 1242-43). Crenshaw's concept of intersectionality aims to advance critical race theory by underlining two main issues in her example of violence against women of color. First issue addresses how women of color experiences with racism differ from men of colour. The second issue is how the experiences of women of color deal with sexism differ from white women (Crenshaw 1243-44). Structural intersectionality is a system of race, gender, and class domination that is converged and seen in the experiences of battered women's shelters (Crenshaw 1245). These shelters consist of mostly women of color, burdened by poverty, childcare responsibilities, inadequate job skills, language barriers, and even immigration status that differently influences situated groups of women who access those shelters (Crenshaw 1246-47). This is largely the consequence of racial and discriminatory practices often faced by these women of color. The intervention strategies and remedies offered by these shelters are based solely on the experiences of women who do not share the same class and racial struggles, white-middle-class privileged individuals (Crenshaw 1246-48). Consequently, immigrant women being turned away solely on language barriers is a common occurrence of this sort class domination (Crenshaw 1263-64). These services cannot take into account the multiple dimensions, and forms of domination converged within these shelter facilities. It furthers the inability for alternatives to the abusive relationship minority women faced with remedies based solely on the standards of middle class women, who do not experience similar class and racial struggles (Crenshaw 1245). The imposition of a service designed to aid the burden of one specific group furthers the vulnerabilities of other groups – showing the ineffective of provisions of these services when they do not take in account of intersection of the position of women of color (Crenshaw 1247). Another example can be seen in the services of counsellors who provide rape crisis remedies to women. The fact is due to the economic and social standing of women of color, accommodations to their needs lack funding as the primary standards to these services were meant to again for white and middle class. Those with different struggles must be accommodated with different remedies, which in terms of resources, counsellors are unable to fully accommodate in these struggles of women or color (Crenshaw 1250-51). The needs are met with tension as accommodations are made by burned out counsellors who are provided with underfunded resources for a marginalized group of women (Crenshaw 1250-51). Structural intersectionality reflects the ways in which an individual’s social needs marginalized them, specifically because of the convergence of identity. Poor women of color are less likely to receive the help needed due to the standards of need primary focused on racially and economically privileged women (Shields 301). Political intersectionality in contrast highlights the possible and conflicting needs of the respective groups from which an individual can access due to their identity (Shields 301). A critique of the feminist and antiracist discourses is that they are unable to address the very intersection of race and gender (Crenshaw 1252). This is problematic as feminism failure to analyze race means the fight for women's rights will often reproduce and emphasize subordination of people of color. While consequently, the failure of antiracism to analyzed patriarchy will emphasize subordination of women in general (Crenshaw 1252). The problem is not that both discourses fail women of color because it does not recognize the issue as race or patriarchy, but that the discourses is a cycle misrepresentation of multiple dimensions in the intersection of racism and sexism. If we classified the analysis of this cycle as being either one variable, we fundamentally reject a multiple dimension of subordination, that allows for advancements of a political discourse, which can properly represent women of color (Crenshaw 1252). The political scheme of racism and sexism in violence against women is complex, and cannot be classified as either just one variable, as it dismisses the multiple issues that is misrepresented of women of color as they fall through the cracks in the fight for a fairer justice system (Crenshaw 1252). A representational intersectionality is the reconstruction of variables such as racial and gender, it creates a narrative in society that ignores the convergence of race and gender, which leads to the issues of women of color being overlooked (Crenshaw 1282-83).
It attempts to bridge a connection of the classification of women of color presented by the cultural imagery in western society. The controversy of June 1990, with the 2 Live Crew scandal illustrates the sort influence pop-culture imagery has on identity. In the case members of the black and male rap group was arrested and charged under Florida Obscenity Statue (Crenshaw 1283). With the rap's group sexual explicit lyrics, “Nasty” a debate over the controversy of rap groups being sexist and racists unfolded (Crenshaw 1283). An analysis of representational intersectionality revealed the images within popular culture contributed to a misogynistic view by men, but at the same time physically sexualized women of color (Crenshaw 1285). But to avoid intragroup complications that dealt with the issues such as misogyny, racism, and sexism as multiple intersectionality, the issue was taken out of context in the judge's decision and the issue was never addressed (Crenshaw 1288-89). This is problematic as the separation of these contexts, allow for issues such as violence of women to be made light in the legal system - as it contributes to the overly sexualized and objectification of women of color by men. Therefore, a …show more content…
representational intersectional analysis provides an insight to the forms of violence against women seen in the imagery of popular culture (Crenshaw 1292). Critical Race Theory centers on "race" as a key variable in understanding the function of law, as the notion of race is a broad social force that goes beyond the widespread and general belief of self-evident and visually obvious physical features such as skin color (Obasogie 586). Obasogie argued this notion goes beyond a rhetorical value that will lead to a “color-blind” society if not challenged; it is a discourse, in which classification of race and racism are problems of a reaffirmed social and legal practice that could potentially promote discrimination against other groups by those who are in privileged positions. Moreover, these behaviours towards race are a result of a historical discourse set in motion by those in power within society, as his work revealed race is not a visual distinction, but instead a social, economic, and political construction of the white middle class (Obasogie 586). Crenshaw's three intersectionalities allow for new insights on the various interaction between variables such as race and gender. In the context of this paper, the insights allowed for better understanding of racism and patriarchy in society. It explores a system of oppression that does not favour marginalized groups outside of the white middle class. Her concept of intersectionality exposes how the marginalization of groups through their experiences - along with the antiracist and feminist critiques of violence against women of color fails to examine ways in which racism and sexism converges. The idea of her intersectionality may not be the start of social change, but it is the data of lived experience needed to support agendas of social change, that no longer single-out social issues as one variable. Crenshaw’s intersectionality depicted the interactions of race and gender in the context of violence against women of color in order to mediate the tension between assertions of multiple identities and the ongoing social construction of identity politics (Crenshaw1296). By understanding this social construction of race and gender, the way we view subordination of people and those who privileged by them can be the start of change. The breakdown and the critical analysis of social construction from Crenshaw’s intersectionality reveals the challenges that political powers of institutions hold over certain marginalized groups of people. It provides us a basis for the reconceptualising of race, and gender that leads to hopefully the remedies of these struggles faced by women of color. Lastly, intersectionality not only builds on identity politics, but recognizes social issues as being more than one category for it goes beyond individually informed perspective. The response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster is an intersectionality of both race and class.
In respects to US governmental officials such as the Bush administration at the time this debate would be safer classified as a class issue due to assumed charge tension of bringing up the race card. However contrary to their beliefs, New Orleans is home to an abundance of both Black and poor Americans than any other racial groups living there, in which nonetheless classified this debate as an intersectionality of the two variables - but I will elucidate this point further by explaining how this event can be classified as a race and gender though the experiences of women of color during the crisis. On Sunday August 8th, 2005 instead of sending aid to evacuate those who could not make it in New Orleans during the Katrina disaster the people were provided insufficient help and left stranded on rooftops (Willinger 1-2). The relief efforts carried out by the Bush administration in the Katrina disaster was nothing, but pitiful as it revealed the failures of the U.S. government - where it lacked the funds and means to evacuate groups living in deprived and affected areas of New Orleans - many who were women of color left in disadvantaged position in prior and aftermath. In addition, it revealed the social facts already known in the discriminatory history of New Orleans with linkage of race and gender (Willinger
5). It is in this context that I will briefly illustrate Crenshaw's three intersectionalities that could be seen in this disaster. In the structural intersectionality approach, a report on the impact of Hurricane Katrina supported previous research on women’s greater vulnerability prior to the disaster due to employment and institutions of inadequate and unaffordable housing, childcare, public transportation, and healthcare offered by the U.S. government. The vulnerability consisted of poor, and women of color at every sector in the location of these urban core (Willinger 9). Social services were literally destroyed and in their slow restoration has hampered the recovery efforts of thousands of women were left as secondary concerns (Willinger 6). This was furthered by traditional gender roles, which placed women in the home as homemakers solely depended on their husband, which deprived them of skills and experiences needed to recovery in the aftermath (Willinger 12-13). In the political intersectionality, a report of earnings of full-time, year round women workers were on average just 61.8 percent of the earnings of men, this was further after the disaster as the wage gap in earnings between white women and women of color was equal to the wage gap between women pre-Katrina (60-61 percent). Rather than reduce wage inequities Katrina widen earnings between women and men, and between white women and women of color (Willinger 8). The disaster research indicated that women of color are more vulnerable than men, but also from their white women counterparts in unequal employment opportunities and lesser earning capacity. Thus, disasters do not affect all women equally as differences of class, race, and gender status have been shown to be important factors in women’s disaster experiences (Willinger 14). Lastly, in the representational intersectionality, unequal imagery of women in the aftermath of the disaster showed women of color lack skills, due to prior longstanding inequalities based on intersections of race, class and gender (Willinger 9). The impact of the Hurricane seem to put into question whether being poor, black and a women people was considered in being "invisible Americans" often time not considered important in these disaster planning. Furthermore, this form of political and systematic racism related to life events, made isolated stories of these women of color not only influenced in New Orleans, but also ripples of the affect could collectively be seen wide-spread in America. In respect to this debate on the meager response to the evacuation, and restoration of Katrina do we see the undying issue of class, race, and gender variables. Overall, Crenshaw’s concept of intersectionality contributes to Critical Race Theory as it furthers the critical understanding of law from her violence against women of color perspective. She adopts intersectionality to indicate the various ways in which race and gender interact to shape nuances of the multiple-dimensions of women of color. In her paper these nuances explored how race and gender shaped structural, political and representational aspects of violence against women. She attempts to take in account how multiple identities are socially constructed and isolated to further oppression of racial groups. Lastly, the concept is strengthened in the experience of racial and class oppression faced by women of color seen in the Hurricane Katrina disaster.
The hurricane is argued to be a man made disaster, a result of government neglect and failure to protect the lower socioeconomic class. Vine discusses how non political minorities have always been excluded from fundamental rights stating that the “non-political minorities have no significant constitutional protection, nor have they ever.” These non-political minorities received deficient protection from in Hurricane Katrina. The aftermath showed that African Americans vastly outnumbered whites in the flooded area from over a 3.8:1 ratio and African Americans accounted for 66 percent of the storm deaths while whites accounted for 33 percent (Campanella). This discrimination is shown through the disproportion of those who were most affected by the disaster since “the race and class dimensions of who escaped and who was victimized by this decidedly unnatural disaster not only could have been predicted, and was, but it follows a long history of like experiences”
In the article “ From Fly to Bitches and Hoes” by Joan Morgan, she often speaks about the positive and negative ideas associated with hip-hop music. Black men display their manhood with full on violence, crime, hidden guilt, and secret escapes through drugs and alcohol. Joan Morgan’s article views the root causes of the advantage of misogyny in rap music lyrics. In the beginning of the incitement her desires shift to focus on from rap culture condemnation to a deeper analysis of the root causes. She shows the hidden causes of unpleasant sexism in rap music and argues that we need to look deeper into understanding misogyny. I agree with Joan Morgan with the stance that black men show their emotions in a different way that is seen a different perspective.
Even though it is the responsibility of the federal and state governments to aid citizens during times of disaster, the people devastated by Hurricane Katrina were not effectively facilitated as according to their rights as citizens of the United States. The government’s failures to deliver assistance to citizens stem from inadequate protection systems in place before the storm even struck. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security were the two largest incumbents in the wake of the storm. The failure of these agencies rests on the shoulders of those chosen to head the agency. These directors, appointed by then president George W. Bush, were not capable of leading large government agencies through a crisis, let alone a disaster the magnitude of Hurricane Katrina. Along with the federal government, the state of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans did not do enough to lesseb the damage caused by the storm, and forced thousands of poorer citizens to remain in cramped and unsanitary conditions for extended periods of time. The culmination of federal, state, and local government’s failures in suppressing and repairing the damage of Hurricane Katrina to a level acceptable for citizens of the United States is a denial of the rights citizens of the United States hold.
Often identity is only thought of as a collection of individual characteristics that are independent such as sex, gender, race, class, sexuality, etc. Intersectionality is when these characteristics are transformed by one another and “tend to collapse into one another in the context of everyday life”. Dorothy Allison wrote Two of Three Things I Know for Sure where she explains aspects of her life through chronological stories revealing details and providing the reader with lessons she learned throughout her experiences. This book can be read with an intersectionality lens focusing on the moments or stories where gendered poverty shapes people’s experience of sex and sexuality as well as how gender, sexuality, and class transforms whiteness into a stigmatizing attribute rather than it’s usual power given attribute. Allison’s scene with her Aunt Maudy and the scene with her girlfriend both show intersectionality in different aspects and times of Allison’s life.
However, intersectionality originates separately from its current application. As a development from Black feminist thought, intersectionality originates from Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, a Black feminist legal scholar (Carastathis 2014, p 304-305). Yet, the notion of multiple oppressions was not created with intersectionality or even third-wave feminism but in the 1970’s as Frances Beal’s “double jeopardy” as well as several other iterations of the concept through Black feminist thought, as explained by Carastathis (2014, p 305). The application of intersectionality in cases of age, sexuality, and class is an extrapolation of “double jeopardy” which was originally created to address the experiences of black women. In current scholarship, intersectionality is utilized as a theory, methodology, or tool to discuss how identities are never independent, monolithic experiences (Carastathis 2014, p 307). Rebecca Ann Lind writes in an introduction for Race/Gender/Media: “The variety of social groups noted above raises an important issue: Each of us is a product of a combination of experiences and identities, rooted in a variety of socially constructed classifications” (2004, 5). Applying double jeopardy and intersectional concepts to the protagonists of Grace and Frankie without acknowledging its origins to measure race exhibits poor scholarship and erasure of Black
Long before the storm hit New Orleans there was already a divide in the city. The city seemed to be divided by race with affluent whites living in the cities nicer neighborhoods which unsurprisingly just happened to be located at higher altitudes. While less affluent African Americans tended to reside in neighborhoods at lower altitudes. According to a report titled Race, Socioeconomic Status, and Return Migration to New Orleans After Hurricane Katrina, the segregation in the city had been historically low compared to the rest of the country however “by 2000, the standard index of black–white segregation showed New Orleans to have reached, and even gone a bit beyond, the national average” (Fussell, Elizabeth) When the storm hit 2005 the effect that this seemingly unnoticed difference was magnified as it became apparent that the difference in altitudes would lead to extremely different outcomes for the residents in the different neighborhoods. Acco...
...ef workers, police, and military personnel. Many felt as if the government cared less because New Orleans mostly consisted of low income African Americans. Looking at the whole situation, its very important to understand all the things that went wrong prior, during, and after the flood in order to create better protection to New Orleans and to any other place a situation like this can arise. The way the government handled the situation allows the people to learn from the consequences of the actions they did not take. This shows Hurricane Katrina was a source of change for everyone who cares enough to acknowledge it happened. The damage it caused was devastating for everything including the economy.
In relation to the Critical Race Theory, the idea of the “gap between law, politics, economics, and sociological reality of racialized lives” (Critical Race Theory slides). The critical race theory gives us a guide to analyze privileges and hardships that comes across different races and gender. For example, analyzing how and why a “black” or “indigenous” woman may experience more hardships versus not only a “white” man, but a “white”
The book, There is No Such Thing as a Natural Disaster, edited by Chester Hartman and Gregory D. Squires, is a compilation of essays that discuss various elements of the Hurricane Katrina disaster that relate to class and race. While each essay focuses on a different topic within the scope of the disaster, they all embody a singular set of ethics that encompass a belief in equality among all citizens regardless of race and class. The majority of the authors assign the persistent and systemic income and racial inequality as the root cause of the suffering dealt to the citizens of the Gulf coast region in the wake of the hurricane. They further charge the local, state and federal governments with a range of culpability ranging from mere inefficiency
The novel challenges heteronormative ideology by demonstrating intersectionality and how each aspect of Krissy is vital to who she is. Intersectionality is incredibly prominent in the novel, as Krissy has a multitude of aspects that inform her identity. Heteronormative ideology is about looking at heterosexuality as the norm, and the un-questioned ‘given’. Intersectionality in this novel is key to Krissy’s identity, and her identity is unique because she is not binaried. Krissy’s gender identity, biological sex, her athletic career, title as Homecoming Queen, her mother passing away, her boyfriend dumping her, and her experiences with public rejection and her classmates actions, are all a part of who she is. At one doctors appointment, Krissy
Critical Race Theory (CRT) comes from the scholarship of Critical Legal Studies (CLS) which has observed the continuing domination and power of some groups such males and whites over some other groups and it has argued that political and social change was necessary (Taylor, 2009). Derrick A. Bell, an African American, was the first who had tried to establish an agenda in which colonialism, race, and racism would have an important role in intellectual legal...
Tragedy has the ability to simultaneously bring people together and push them apart. Judith Cofer, the writer of “American History,” explores the theme of tragedy when she dwells upon the day when tragedy struck the lives of many. In her essay, she remembers the day former President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. Numerous people in her community are devastated by JFK’s unexpected death because they can relate to the fact that he stood for equality of culture, race, and gender. However, Cofer lacks the understanding of JFK’s goal, so her mother tries to expose the truth of her identity to her. Although Cofer’s mother wants to protect her, evidence from the text proves that unraveling the truth of racial prejudice is agonizing and
Print culture utilized rape announcements to perpetuate and add to the wedge between the races, and further promote the superiority of the white race. Through print culture, rape was represented as a “black-on-white” crime, with any reported “white” rapes being an anomaly (200). When a white man was convicted of rape, his race was typically left out of the description of the crime (201). White men for both their purity and their immorality used white women; when a black man raped a white woman, she was pure and innocent, but when a white woman charged a white man with rape, her character was tarnished and she was portrayed as unchaste (206).
Spelman College, a black liberal arts college for women, has taken a stand against the patriarchy in hip-hop, starting with black rapper Nelly (Holsendolph, 2005, p. 1). Feminists within the college, upon watching the rapper’s music video, entitled “Tip Drill,” held protests against allowing him to “present his plan to promote his bone marrow education program” at the school (Holsendolph, 2005, p. 1). When Nelly decided to cancel his presentation, protesters took a major step in the fight against misogyny, which fueled the idea that with enough effort, other misogynistic rappers would realize the harm they were doing to the black female population (Holsendolph, 2005, p. 1). The college has since joined with Essence magazine to sponsor “Take Back the Music” (Holsendolph, 2005, p. 1). This initiative lasted one whole week, and focused on “the controversy over hip-hop images” (Holsendolph, 2005, p. 2). Moya Bailey, a student and leader of the Spelman movement against the controversy of rap, has stated that the battle for a more appropriate representation of black women in hip-hop was formed on a “personal” level (Holsendolph, 2005, p. 2). She has been quoted to believe, along with many other students attending Spelman, that “out of the many issues [hip-hop raises with respect to black women] is the question of
N.W.A, Ice T, and 2 Live Crew changed the fabric of hip-hop by commercializing suggestive themes and portraying women as objects. Joan Smith defines misogyny as a hatred or disdain towards women. It is the belief that diminishes women to objects for men’s ownership, use, or abuse. (Smith, 1991) According to Joan, misogyny assumes many characteristics, it reveals itself in forms that are dictated by race, education, social class, religion and wealth. The primal characteristic of misogyny is its pervasiveness. In the article Women, Pop Music, and Pornography Meredith Levande, identifies how misogyny became pervasive, she tells us that “paper-view-television and the internet removed the final barriers between consumer and product” (Levande, 296) As soon as these obstacles were removed, images of women in popular media became increasingly suggestive and mirrored pornographic behaviors, attitudes and body language. Another issue was cross-ownership. There was a time when the government didn’t allow one company to own several TV stations, local newspapers, or radio stations, but after 2003 the law was revised, the power was put back in the hands of large corporations. This allowed cross-ownership of new & old media to become limitless. Fast forward to 2015 and we can see the affects of cross-ownership, large