What DOES Intersectionality mean?

"Intersectionality is a metaphor for understanding the ways that multiple forms of inequality or disadvantage sometimes compound themselves and create obstacles that often are not understood among conventional ways of thinking."

—Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw

simply put,

Intersectionality is the idea that different types of inequality, like those based on gender, race, sexuality, disability, class, caste, religion, and more, combine and influence each other in specific ways.

Exclusion and discrimination in movements aren't always purposeful, but they create more unfairness in systems and structures.

To prevent one form of inequality from strengthening another, we need to examine and tackle all types of inequality together because they all support each other.

To achieve true equality and fight discrimination, we need to consider all the different factors that contribute to discrimination. If we don't, our efforts to address discrimination may unintentionally perpetuate the same patterns of discrimination that we're trying to change. Discrimination is deeply rooted in our society's systems, so it impacts every part of our lives, including how we approach anti-discrimination and social justice.

Examples:

  • Spoorthi is a Dalit woman who faces both sexism (discrimination based on gender) and casteism (discrimination based on her lower caste status). She may encounter situations where she experiences either or both types of discrimination.

  • Rahul is a 14-year-old boy who enjoys watching a cartoon meant for younger girls featuring ponies. He keeps his liking for the show a secret because he fears criticism due to his age and gender.

  • Aliya is a Muslim woman with a physical disability. When trying to use the wheelchair ramp available at a shopping mall a group of young men forcibly tried to help her up the ramp, and then tried to grope her. This shows an intersection of ableism and sexism.

  • Chandana is a Hindu woman who identifies as a lesbian and works as a manager at a software firm. In her workplace, she deals with comments about her appearance and faces inappropriate jokes from male coworkers because of her sexual orientation and gender.

  • Rudra is a 25-year-old hardworking office boy who has only been educated till the 8th grade, after which the school in his village closed down. He now works at a medium-sized business in a city and taught himself English. His superiors regularly criticize his English skills and/or his village background, sometimes both.

  • Tara is a highly educated woman from Manipur, a state in Northeast India. She works as a junior associate at a marketing company. Unfortunately, she often experiences racism due to her physical features resembling those of East Asian descent. Additionally, people sometimes stare at her inappropriately, regardless of her attire.

  • Madhu is a trans man who faces intense bullying at school because of his gender. His family constantly shames him, believing that people like him do not belong in Indian society.

“There's really no such thing as the 'voiceless'. There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard.”

-Arundathi Roy

iNTERSECTIONALITY EXPLAINED IN 2 MINUTES 49 SECONDS

Books That Aid in Understanding Intersectionality

IMAGE SOURCE: VOX

WHO IS KIMBERLÉ williams crenshaw?

A pioneering scholar and writer on civil rights, critical race theory, Black feminist legal theory, and race, racism, and the law. Crenshaw is a Distinguished Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, and at the University of California, Los Angeles.