In this article, we explore intersectionality in activism, the features, the examples, the strategies, the benefits, the types, and also the challenges.
Definition
In activism, Intersectionality is a framework for understanding how various forms of oppression and privilege interact and overlap, creating unique experiences of discrimination and disadvantage for individuals. Coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw, it recognizes that identities like race, gender, class, and ability are not separate but interlocked, shaping a person’s opportunities and vulnerability to systemic injustices. For activists, intersectionality means addressing the complexities of inequality, ensuring that movements are inclusive, and working toward radical social change that considers the multidimensional experiences of all people.
Features of Intersectionality in Activism:
Understanding Interlocking Oppressions:
Instead of focusing on one form of oppression, an intersectional lens reveals how multiple systems of oppression (e.g., racism, sexism, ableism) interact to create specific and compounded disadvantages.
Recognizing Distinct Experiences:
Intersectionality moves beyond simply adding up different oppressions. It highlights how the combination of identities creates unique experiences and outcomes that are not fully understood by looking at single dimensions.
Promoting Inclusivity:
By considering the diverse experiences within marginalized communities, intersectional activism seeks to ensure that movements address the needs of all individuals, especially those who are most vulnerable due to multiple forms of disadvantage.
Challenging Single-Issue Approaches:
An intersectional approach shows that discrimination is not simple and cannot be solved by focusing on a single issue, as this can often overlook or erase the experiences of more marginalized groups within the movement.
Aiming for Radical Social Change:
The ultimate goal of intersectional activism is to dismantle interlocking systems of power and privilege, leading to more comprehensive and transformative social change for everyone.
The Examples of Intersectionality in Activism:
Black Lives Matter (BLM):
This movement recognizes that the experiences of Black individuals are not just about race but also about how race intersects with gender, class, sexuality, and other identities.
Women’s Marches:
These global events are influenced by intersectional principles, bringing together diverse groups of women to address racism, classism, xenophobia, and other forms of oppression, not just sexism.
Reproductive Justice:
This framework moves beyond a narrow focus on “women’s issues” to acknowledge that the reproductive rights struggles of Black women, working-class women, and LGBTQ+ individuals differ from those of white, middle-class women, according to The Conversation and Womankind Worldwide.
Youth Climate Activism:
Some youth climate movements are adopting an intersectional approach, recognizing that climate change disproportionately affects marginalized communities and linking it to issues of racial justice, classism, and colonialism.
Naomi Osaka’s Activism:
Tennis star Naomi Osaka used masks to honor victims of police brutality, highlighting how the experiences of Black women are shaped by a unique intersection of racism and sexism within the context of sports culture, notes Frontiers.
Advocacy for People with Disabilities:
Activism on disability rights increasingly incorporates intersectionality, recognizing that individuals with disabilities who also belong to other marginalized groups, such as being LGBTQ+ or a person of color, face compounded discrimination and unique challenges.
The Strategies of Intersectionality in Activism:
Forming Co-Resistances and Coalitions:
Intersectional activism builds alliances and coalitions among different marginalized groups to resist interlocking systems of power. This approach recognizes that multiple forms of oppression can be experienced simultaneously, such as by Black immigrant women who face both racial discrimination and discrimination based on their immigration status.
Developing Collective Identities and Demands:
Activists work to create collective identities and formulate political demands that encompass the diverse experiences of various intersecting groups. This means moving beyond single-issue activism to address the complex, overlapping barriers faced by people at different intersections of power and privilege.
Engaging with and Centering Lived Experience:
A crucial strategy is to involve and empower individuals with direct experience of intersecting forms of oppression as experts in the policymaking and activism process. Their perspectives are essential for understanding the unique challenges and for designing effective solutions.
Advocating for Systemic Change:
Intersectional activism aims to challenge and transform the interlocking systems of power that create and maintain these inequities. This goes beyond acknowledging discrimination to actively working for broad, systemic changes that address the root causes of injustice.
Using Data and Evidence to Expose Inequities:
Activists employ intersectional frameworks to examine data through multiple lenses (race, gender, ability, class, etc.) to better define problems and advocate for inclusive policies. This involves understanding how policies might offer privilege to some groups while marginalizing others.
Building Diverse Support Bases:
By addressing broader issues that resonate with a wider range of communities, movements can increase their support, visibility, and impact. For example, aligning environmental activism with socio-political contexts can create a more robust and resilient movement.
Critical and Inclusive Praxis:
A core principle is the commitment to praxis, which means integrating critical analysis with practical action to achieve social change. This can involve using intersectional analysis to understand complex conflicts and to develop radical approaches to peacebuilding and justice.
The Types of Intersectionality in Activism:
Kimberlé Crenshaw defined three key aspects of intersectionality:
- Structural Intersectionality:
Focuses on how interlocking systems of oppression, like racism and sexism, create unique disadvantages for certain groups. For example, a woman of color may face obstacles that are not solely due to her race or her gender, but the combined effects of both.
- Political Intersectionality:
Examines how the political structures, or lack thereof, fail to account for and address the experiences of people at the intersection of multiple forms of marginalization.
- Representational Intersectionality:
Involves analyzing how stereotypes and media portrayals can perpetuate discrimination against individuals with intersecting marginalized identities.
How These Concepts Apply to Intersectional Activism
Intersectional activism applies these analytical lenses to drive change:
Identifying Interlocking Systems:
Activists use the framework to recognize that forms of oppression are not separate but interconnected.
Challenging Compounded Disadvantage:
The framework helps understand and address the unique challenges faced by individuals with multiple marginalized identities, such as a disabled person of color, who may experience compounded discrimination.
Building Broader Coalitions:
By acknowledging the shared experiences of multiple oppressed groups, intersectional activism fosters alliances and solidarity among diverse communities.
Advocating for Systemic Change:
Intersectional activists push for changes to address the root causes of discrimination, aiming for policies and societal structures that are inclusive and equitable for everyone.
How Intersectionality Benefits Activism
Promotes Inclusive Movements:
By recognizing that individuals hold multiple identities that can lead to unique forms of discrimination, intersectionality helps ensure that movements don’t leave anyone out. This fosters unity around more expansive agendas for social justice.
Develops Comprehensive Solutions:
Understanding how different forms of oppression are interconnected allows activists to develop strategies that address the root causes of inequality, rather than just surface-level issues.
Identifies Power Dynamics:
Intersectionality highlights power differences among people and within movements, revealing how advantages and disadvantages shape agendas and actions. This awareness is crucial for developing strategies for political intersectionality.
Addresses the Most Marginalized:
The approach prioritizes understanding the experiences of those who are disproportionately affected by multiple intersecting factors, ensuring their needs are not overlooked in favor of a majority or advantaged subgroup.
Fosters Stronger Coalitions:
By analyzing the complexity of interwoven power structures and oppressions, intersectionality can help diverse groups coalesce around shared goals, forming stronger, more effective coalitions.
Enables Critical Analysis:
Intersectionality acts as an analytic tool to critically assess existing systems of oppression and to evaluate initiatives aimed at social change, ensuring they are truly transformative and not co-opted.
In essence, intersectionality is an indispensable lens for modern activism, helping to make movements more effective, equitable, and just by acknowledging the complex reality of interconnected systems of power and oppression.
The Challenges of Intersectionality in Activism
Internal Movement Challenges
Competing Needs and Priorities:
When different marginalized groups come together, they may have different needs and priorities, leading to tension and conflict within the movement itself.
Navigating Privilege:
Individuals can hold both marginalized and privileged identities simultaneously, creating “intersectional wounds” that are painful to acknowledge and can lead to internal conflicts and discomfort within movements.
Risk of Exclusion:
Even with good intentions, movements can inadvertently exclude or marginalize certain identities if they don’t fully grasp the concept of intersectionality, leading to a focus on a single identity and overlooking others.
Dilution of Purpose:
The effort to incorporate many different struggles can, at times, dilute the original focus and goals of a movement, making it harder to achieve targeted change.
External and Conceptual Challenges
Understanding Power Dynamics:
Intersectionality requires a deep understanding of how various forms of oppression (like racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism) are interconnected and how power imbalances affect different people in complex ways.
Addressing Systemic Oppression:
Effectively challenging intersectional oppression requires transforming the very systems that create and perpetuate inequality, which is a difficult and complex task.
Co-optation and Misuse:
As the concept gains visibility, there is a risk that intersectionality will be co-opted or misunderstood, becoming a superficial strategy rather than a tool for genuine transformation and inclusion.
Discomfort and Resistance:
Acknowledging intersectionality requires facing difficult truths about privilege and oppression, which can be met with resistance from individuals and groups unwilling to confront these realities.
Practical Implementation Challenges
Developing Inclusive Strategies:
Activists need to develop strategies that address multiple oppressions simultaneously, moving beyond single-issue approaches to effectively challenge complex systems of disadvantage.
Shaping Agendas and Goals:
The challenges lie in how to integrate the varied experiences and concerns of multiple marginalized groups into the framing of agendas and the choice of collective actions.
Building Coalitions:
Creating effective coalitions requires navigating power differences between groups, ensuring that the goals and methods of the coalition reflect the diverse needs of its members.
Conclusion
Intersectionality in activism provides a framework for understanding and addressing the complex, interlocking systems of oppression and privilege that result from multiple social identities. Coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw, it highlights how discrimination based on race, gender, class, sexual orientation, and other factors are not separate but rather create unique, overlapping experiences of hardship. In practice, intersectional activism involves recognizing these intertwined oppressions and advocating for social justice by challenging interconnected power structures, rather than focusing on single issues.