Despite coining the term, Kimberle Crenshaw is the first to admit that she’s not the first to articulate its true meaning, citing women like 19th century Black Liberation Activist Anna J. Cooper all the way through to living legend Angela Davis, a prominent political activist.
As Kimberle Crenshaw built on these foundations, modern feminists build on hers today, intersectionality encompasses more than just the intersections of race and gender. This is used to illustrate the interplay between any kinds of discrimination, whether it’s based on gender, race, age, class, socioeconomic status, physical or mental ability, gender or sexual identity, religion, or ethnicity.
Intersectionality is a term used to describe how different factors of discrimination can meet at an intersection and can affect someone's life. Adding intersectionality to feminism is important to the social justice movement across borders because it allows the fight for gender equality to become inclusive. Using intersectionality allows us all to understand each other a little bit better. At the end of the day, we might all experience discrimination and gender inequality differently and uniquely, but we are all united in our hope for equality.
Furthermore, in putting this into action, I think our first job is to educate ourselves as much as possible about other people’s experiences and not always put the onus on those who are less privileged to educate us. Take some time to reflect on your own beliefs, attitudes, unconscious bias, various binaries and gaps in knowledge.
Second, I think our role is to listen, and use our own privilege to create spaces for our sisters (and brothers) to share their own stories and articulate their own needs. Always question whose voices are missing from the conversation. Then we have a responsibility to act, to actively work to challenge the unequal system we live in. Use our privilege to challenge racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination whenever we see it. For instance, if you are in a position to hire people, actively try to recruit indigenous women, refugee women or women from the global South.
Pseudonym: Alexis
In discussing feminist responsibility for education, I appreciate your critique that one must be careful of the emotional labour often unnoticed with having to educate someone. I often find myself questioning whose responsibility it is to prompt or host the hard conversations, as the voices marginalized within solidarity movements may take the burden of having to explain their struggles constantly. Yet, we want to have those voices heard, but cannot demand or expect the burden of education to come from marginalized voices. It is a difficult line to toe, but I ultimately conclude that the voices to speak should be those freely willing to and/or allies, friends, and family who can be trusted to speak for marginalized voices with less…