Intersectionality as a Theoretical Framework PDF

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Taught by Kevin Escudero...

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Intersectionality as a Theoretical Framework Monday, October 7, 2019 1:05 PM

10/7 Reading 1. Combahee River Statement 2. Intersectionality - enables us to analyze how structures of privilege and disadvantage, such as gender, race, and class, interact in the lives of all people, depending on their particular identities and social positions (Kimberle Crenshaw) ● Structures of privilege and disadvantage that are not necessarily confined to the interpersonal experience, although they do play out in the lived experiences of an individual. How an inequality is perpetuated in institutions. ● Structural forms of advantage and disadvantage ● How people who share a common identity can be perceived as privileged or oppressed depending on other identities they may hold Historical Origins of Intersectionality as a Theoretical Framework 1. Focus on providing a holistic approach to the multiple histories of intersectional theory rather than ascribing to the existence of a linear narrative 2. Push back against the notion that Crenshaw coined the terms and highlight the work scholars who wrote upon the work upon the work which Crenshaw's writing are based 3. Rooted in women of color's subordination in racial/ethnic power movements of the 1960s and 70s 1. Simultaneous exclusion and marginalization 4. Important Benefits as well as Challenges 1. A new umbrella term might enable coalition building among the exponentially growing study of race, class, and gender 2. Re-inscribed academics notions of ownership _____5. Combahee River Collective Statement 1. Statement authored by Collective of Black feminist activists 1. Emphasis on group members identities as both black individuals and as women 2. Discuss the impact of these women's participation in other social movement causes and how it shaped their approach to engaging in social movement activism 1. Within those movements noticed a silencing of Black women's voices and perspectives 2. Also saw their work as rooted in a critique of "respectability politics" discourse

1. Saw it as subversive and subtle ways of subversion… intersectionality was a way of escalating and bringing experiences to the forefront rather than strategic subtle ways of assimilating 3. Academic scholarship as a means of sharing one's own struggle and from ones marginalized social position Kimberle Crenshaw's Work 1. According to Hill Collins and Bilge, Crenshaw didn't coin the term, but opened up the possibilities for an intersectional framework to be employed more widely 2. Crenshaw: mapping the margins 1. Foundational article pointed to by mainstream academic as the "origins" of intersectional theory 2. Emphasizes the need to examine inter-group and intra-group difference Additional Perspectives on intersectionality as a Theoretical Framework 1. Legitimate concerns regarding the potential for intersectionality to be appropriated for a distorted means by the neo-liberal university 2. During this time scholars of intersectional and intersectional approaches have expressed their concerns 1. Jennifer Nash draws attention to the efforts of individuals seeking to maintain focus on Black women's activism as part of the intersectional project and to do so in a manner that envisions liberation for all people Intersectional Social Movement Activism 1. National Coming out of the Shadows 1. Began in Chicago pioneered by the group the immigrant youth justice league (Grassroots undocumented youth led organization) 2. Event consists of undocumented young people coming out publicly as undocumented individuals on a stage with mics and community performances in Chicago 3. Activists recognized the immigrants rights movement modeled after coming out as a movement...