The Concept of Intersectionality Basing on the Work of Jordan-Zachery - Essay Example

INTERSECTIONALITY By The concept of “intersectionality” since its inception is considered to make important contribution to the Feminist scholarship. Intersectionality can be described as the interaction of different identities and experiences that promote exclusion and subordination. This is mainly concerned with how the aspects of gender, race, and other categories of individual and group differences interact and the outcome of their interactions based on the aspect of power. This concept continues to experience success in the contemporary feminist scholarship. Since its coining in 1989, the main goal of this concept was to provide redress to situation whereby the experiences and struggles of women of colour were categorized under the feminist and anti-racist discourse. Since then, different feminist scholars hailing from different disciplines have approved of intersectionality and studied it in different contexts. This paper discusses the concept of intersectionality basing on the work of Jordan-Zachery (2007). This addresses among others the importance of intersectionality, drawing also from the views of Stephen Steinberg and Kimberlé Crenshaw. In her essay “Am I a Black Woman or a Woman Who Is Black? A Few Thoughts on the Meaning of Intersectionality” (Jordan-Zachery, 2007) address different issues of intersectionality. She discusses the meaning of intersectionality, the usefulness of intersectionality as both an analytical and political tool, and the relevance of intersectionality in future research. From this essay, it is possible for one to understand the concept of intersectionality and whether or not this concept will remain relevant in the future. While focusing on the essay of Jordan-Zachery (2007) on the concept of intersectionality, it is also important to incorporate the views of Kimberlé Crenshaw the pioneer of the concept of intersectionality in the year 1989. On the other hand, Stephen Steinberg makes important contribution to the concept of Intersectionality through his focus on the aspect of race, which is an important concept of intersectionality; hence his views are important as far as the concept of intersectionality is concerned. Overall, Jordan-Zachery (2007) provides important insights on the concept of intersectionality. An insightful view of Jordan-Zachery (2007) on intersectionality is that “intersectionality has allowed us to stop essentializing.” Whenever we attribute natural, essential characteristics to individuals that belong to a particular age, gender, racial, or socioeconomic group, we are considered as essentializing. This way, we assume that the inherent or natural characteristics that a particular group shares can be used to explain the differences between individuals within that group. Nonetheless, essentializing continues to be considered unacceptable, as this leads to stereotypical thinking, speaking, and talking, which makes people to have false interpretations of individual differences. By arguing that intersectionality has allowed us to stop essentializing, Jordan-Zachery (2007) probably considered this as the major success of intersectionality. Intersectionality holds that all forms of oppression often intersect each other. For instance, a woman who is black is faced with sexism for being female, and racism for being black. For this reason therefore, it can be considered that accepting one form of oppression is accepting oppression in other forms. Hence, one cannot claim to be opposed to racism, yet support sexism. This depicts one as inconsiderable of the life of, let us say, a woman who is black. To a larger extent then, Jordan-Zachery (2007) is right when she postulates that intersectionality allows us to stop essentializing. This is because, once one realizes that any form of oppression is wrong, they will stop to judge individual differences of people in a group, based on the inherent or natural characteristics of those people. Jordan-Zachery (2007) in her essay also addresses the importance of considering the intersection of race, class, and gender. Jordan-Zachery (2007) notes that the concept of intersectionality is an important analytical tool that is used in analyzing differences. Hence, it is important to encourage the use of intersectionality. Initially, when Crenshaw introduced the concept of intersectionality in 1989, she sought to avoid pitfalls that emanate from politics. Jordan-Zachery (2007) can be considered to echo the words of Crenshaw, as she emphasizes intersectionality as the relationship among the aspects of gender, race, and class. Crenshaw proposed a political framework that could be used to oppose the different oppressive structures that black women had to deal with. Therefore, apart from understanding the relationship among different aspects of gender, race, and class in the context of black women, intersectionality also aims at ensuring liberation of black women as well as their communities. Therefore, even though Jordan-Zachery (2007) emphasizes the importance of considering the intersection of race, class, and gender, it is equally important to focus on the role of intersectionality in ensuring that liberation is granted to the oppressed individuals or groups. Different scholars of feminism consider intersectionality in different ways. Jordan-Zachery (2007) considers intersectionality as a whole without further subdivisions. However, Crenshaw considered intersectionality in two major categories. First, is what she termed as structural intersectionality. This mainly focuses on the direct effects of inequalities and their intersections on individual people in society. The second category of intersectionality according to Crenshaw is political intersectionality. This mainly shows how relevant the effects of inequalities are to different strategies in politics. Therefore, even though Jordan-Zachery (2007) emphasizes the importance of considering the intersection of race, class, and gender, Crenshaw shows that it is also important to consider this in different realms. Stephen Steinberg makes an equally important contribution to the concept of intersectionality. In his work: Race Relations: A Critique (2007), Steinberg provides his thoughts on ethnicity and race in America. Race and ethnicity are important components of intersectionality. Steinberg on addressing race questions why generations of sociologists have embraced “white sociology,” which only reflects the viewpoints and interests of the whites. In addition, he speculates what would happen when only the viewpoints and interests of the victims rather than the oppressors of racial oppression would be foregrounded. This way, Steinberg contributes to intersectionality and its goal of liberating victims of oppression, as he is opposed to oppression on the basis of race. It is important to understand the intersection of race, class, and gender. This is important in helping to achieve one of the goals of intersectionality, which is to ensure liberation for the oppressed individuals and groups. When understand how one system of oppression works, and equally understand the strategies we can apply to demolish it, it is possible to use these strategies to apply to dismantle other systems of oppression. When we essentialize differences and stereotype individuals or groups, we tend to put people in small boxes. Intersectionality helps us to understand that we are all part of these small boxes, but we are none of the boxes. The most important thing is that we are all people. As people, we can be black or white, male or female, and straight or gay, among others. However, it is quite unfortunate that the society has socialized people to believe that the latter categorization of people is the most important. In real sense, the fact that we are all people comes first. Similarly, intersectionality reminds us that although we have different characteristics that are interconnected, we are all people. Therefore, it is crucial that we all stand together in fighting against all the forms of oppression in order to have a better society. Although intersectionality is of great importance, there are different issues that have to be considered in order to ensure that intersectionality remains relevant and useful. For instance, intersectionality aims at ensuring that individuals or groups that fall victim to oppression are liberated. However, it is impossible to achieve this when effective strategies are not adopted. Crenshaw (1991) notes that where systems of race, gender, and class domination intersect in the experiences of black women, the strategies adopted for intervention purposes should be based solely on the experiences of women that share the same class or race with the black women. This is because interventions based on otherwise class and race would be limited as women of different class and race face different obstacles. According to Crenshaw (1991), intersectionality has helped us to understand the differences between groups as well as within groups. Jordan-Zachery (2007) bases on this to argue that intersectionality helps us to stop essentializing. In her research, Jordan-Zachery (2007) focuses on the lived experiences of black women as well as ways through which they can be liberated. For instance, on her work “A Declaration of War: An Analysis of How the Invisibility of Black Women Makes Them Targets of the War on Drugs,” Jordan-Zachery explores the issue of social construction, and how this makes black women to be “simultaneously invisible and hypervisible to members within their own community and to those outside of their community” (Jordan-Zachery, 2007: pp257). Jordan-Zachery therefore, introduces the aspect of social construction, which in her research context plays a role in the oppression of black women, as far as the war on drugs is concerned. In understanding intersectionality, it is vital to consider the role that social construction plays. Jordan-Zachery makes important reference to social construction, and how this influences the oppression of black women based on the aspects of race, gender, and class. Similarly, Stephen Steinberg in his work “Myth: Race, Ethnicity and Class in America,” addresses the aspect of social construction and the role it plays in race and ethnicity. Social construction mainly involves how the society gives meaning to things, and also how society categorizes people and accords privileges to some groups of people and not others. In this case, therefore, the aspects of race and ethnicity are social constructs, according to Steinberg. Therefore, all the perceived differences in race and ethnicity are socially constructed. With regard to race, this can be considered in this context as a concept that signifies and represents social interests and conflicts through referring to various kinds of human bodies. Here, people are categorized and given identity based on their physical appearance and skin color. There are different standards, expectations, and stereotypes that arise after categorizing and identifying individuals based on their physical characteristics. Therefore, in understanding how social construction contributes to stereotyping and oppression, it becomes easier to relate this with intersectionality and its application. In conclusion, the concept of intersectionality remains important today in the feminist philosophy. This was coined in the year 1989 by Crenshaw in order to show how the aspects of race, gender, and class interact to shape the different dimensions of black women. She realized that it was impossible to capture wholly the aspects of sexism and racism in the lives of black women when their experiences with sexism and racism are analyzed separately. Therefore, by looking at how different ways through which race and gender interact and shape the structural and political aspects, it is possible to help in bringing to an end these oppression factors. Apart from Crenshaw, different other scholars of feminism have studied the concept of intersectionality in different contexts. This paper has focused mainly on Jordan-Zachery. Jordan-Zachery has explored the concept of intersectionality in varying contexts in her different works. However, in her essay “Am I a Black Woman or a Woman Who Is Black? A Few Thoughts on the Meaning of Intersectionality,” Jordan-Zachery explores among others the meaning, relevance, and future of intersectionality. To her, intersectionality plays a great role in the liberation of victims of oppression. When intersectionality enables us to stop essentializing, this is the first step to the abandonment of all forms of oppression. Jordan-Zachery borrows most of her views on intersectionality from Crenshaw. Stephen Steinberg on the other hand makes important contribution to intersectionality. In most of his works, Steinberg addresses the aspect of race, which is an important aspect in intersectionality. He provides important insights that enable the reader to understand race and ethnicity as a social construct. This way, an individual is able to view race as an aspect of oppression, hence stop stereotyping people based on their skin color and physical appearance. Overall, basing on the views of Jordan-Zachery, Crenshaw and Steinberg, it is clear that intersectionality concept is highly relevant, and it is worthy to consider aspects of race, class, and gender, as it is from this that the victims of the emergent stereotypes and oppression will be liberated. References Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6): 1241-1299. Jordan-Zachery, Julia S. 2007. Am I a Black Woman or a Woman Who Is Black? A Few Thoughts on the Meaning of Intersectionality Politics and Gender 3 (2): 254-263. Steinberg, S. (2007). Race Relations: A Critique. London: Stanford Social Sciences.   Read More