Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw Defines Intersectionality

Summary

The term 'intersectionality' was coined to address the overlapping nature of social injustices like racism and sexism, which create multiple layers of discrimination. Originating from the case of Emma DeGraaf, an African-American woman denied employment due to her race and gender, intersectionality highlights the unique challenges faced by marginalized groups. The concept emphasizes the need to recognize and address the complex interplay of various forms of discrimination to understand and solve social justice issues.

Takeaways

• 📚 Intersectionality was coined to address the overlapping nature of social injustices like racism and sexism.
• 👩‍💼 The term originated from the experience of Emma de Graaff, an African-American woman who faced job discrimination.
• 🚫 Emma was denied employment at a car manufacturing plant, suspecting it was due to her race and gender.
• 👩‍⚖️ The court dismissed Emma's case, failing to recognize the intersection of race and gender discrimination.
• 🔍 The judge's decision was based on the fact that the employer hired both African Americans and women, but not black women for the desired positions.
• 🌐 Intersectionality highlights the unique challenges faced by individuals belonging to multiple marginalized groups.
• 🚸 The court's refusal to consider Emma's case underscored the lack of legal framework to address intersectional discrimination.
• 💡 The concept of intersectionality was developed as a way to frame and address these complex layers of discrimination.
• 🌉 The analogy of an intersection was used to illustrate how different forms of discrimination can converge and exacerbate each other.
• 🌟 Intersectionality has since been applied to understand various forms of social injustice beyond race and gender, including heterosexism, transphobia, xenophobia, and ableism.

Q & A

What is the term used to describe the overlapping nature of social justice problems like racism and sexism?

The term used is 'intersectionality'.

Who is Emma de Graaff and why is she significant to the concept of intersectionality?

Emma de Graaff is an African-American woman whose experience with race and gender discrimination at a car manufacturing plant gave rise to the concept of intersectionality.

What was the judge's reasoning for dismissing Emma de Graaff's claim of discrimination?

The judge dismissed Emma's claim because the employer hired African Americans and women, but failed to acknowledge that the jobs were segregated by race and gender.

Why was Emma de Graaff unable to combine race and gender discrimination claims in her case?

The court believed that allowing her to combine the claims would give her preferential treatment, providing an unfair advantage over African-American men and white women.

What was the court's response to Emma de Graaff's case, and why was it considered unjust?

The court refused to protect African-American women, tossing their case out of court, which was considered unjust because it ignored the unique discrimination they faced.

What was the 'framing problem' that the court faced in Emma de Graaff's case?

The framing problem was that the court's perspective on gender or race discrimination was partial and distorting, failing to see the combined effects of both.

How did the concept of an intersection help in understanding Emma de Graaff's dilemma?

The analogy of an intersection helped visualize how Emma, being both black and female, experienced the simultaneous impacts of the company's gender and race policies.

What is the significance of naming a problem like the one Emma de Graaff faced?

Naming a problem allows it to be recognized and addressed; without a name, the problem remains invisible and unsolvable.

What are some of the other social dynamics that can create unique challenges due to intersectionality?

Other social dynamics include heterosexism, transphobia, xenophobia, and ableism, which can intersect with race and gender to create unique challenges.

How does the concept of intersectionality relate to the broader experiences of marginalized people worldwide?

Intersectionality relates to the experiences of marginalized people by acknowledging that their challenges and dilemmas often stem from multiple intersecting social dynamics.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Origin of Intersectionality

The paragraph discusses the concept of intersectionality, which addresses the overlapping nature of social justice issues like racism and sexism. The concept was developed from the author's encounter with Emma de Graaff, an African-American woman who faced discrimination based on both her race and gender when seeking employment. Despite the company hiring both African-Americans and women, the hiring practices were discriminatory as they did not hire black women for industrial jobs and white women for non-clerical positions. The judge dismissed Emma's case, failing to recognize the compound discrimination she faced. The author, as a student of anti-discrimination law and an advocate for social justice, found this case to be a clear example of 'injustice squared.' The lack of a legal framework to address this specific form of discrimination led to the coining of the term 'intersectionality' to highlight and address such issues.

05:02

🚦 Intersectionality as a Conceptual Framework

This paragraph elaborates on the concept of intersectionality as a way to understand the unique challenges faced by individuals who are subject to multiple forms of discrimination. Using the analogy of an intersection, the author explains how Emma, being both black and female, was affected by the simultaneous impacts of gender and racial discrimination, which the law failed to address. The paragraph highlights how intersectionality is not limited to race and gender but also includes other forms of social dynamics such as heterosexism, transphobia, xenophobia, and ableism. These forces intersect to create unique challenges for marginalized individuals, emphasizing the need for a comprehensive understanding of discrimination that goes beyond single-axis analysis.

Keywords

💡Intersectionality

Intersectionality is a term used to describe the way different forms of social stratification such as race, gender, and class, interact and overlap to create distinct forms of discrimination and disadvantage. In the video, intersectionality is used to explain how Emma de Graaff faced a unique form of discrimination that was not fully addressed by the court because it did not consider the combined effect of racism and sexism.

💡Social Justice

Social justice refers to the fair and just relations between the individual and society. This includes the fair distribution of resources, opportunities, and privileges. In the context of the video, social justice problems like racism and sexism are discussed as overlapping issues that create multiple levels of social injustice.

💡Discrimination

Discrimination is the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of race, age, sex, or disability. The video discusses how Emma de Graaff experienced discrimination based on both her race and gender, which was not recognized by the court.

💡African-American Women

African-American women are a specific demographic group that has historically faced unique challenges due to the intersection of racism and sexism. In the video, the experiences of African-American women like Emma de Graaff are highlighted to illustrate the concept of intersectionality.

💡Race and Gender

Race and gender are social constructs that have significant impacts on an individual's life experiences. The video emphasizes how these two constructs interact to create a unique form of discrimination for individuals like Emma de Graaff, who faced discrimination based on being both black and female.

💡Legal Opinion

A legal opinion is a statement by a judge or court explaining their decision on a legal matter. In the video, the legal opinion written by the judge dismissing Emma's claim is discussed to illustrate the failure of the legal system to recognize intersectional discrimination.

💡Employment

Employment refers to the state of being employed or having a job. The video discusses how Emma de Graaff sought better employment to create a better life for her family, but faced discrimination that prevented her from obtaining a job.

💡Double Discrimination

Double discrimination refers to experiencing discrimination based on two different factors simultaneously. In the video, the term is used to describe the unique challenges faced by Emma de Graaff, who was discriminated against both for being black and for being a woman.

💡Framing Problem

A framing problem refers to the way an issue is presented or understood, which can shape how it is addressed or solved. The video discusses how the court's framing of gender and race discrimination as separate issues led to the dismissal of Emma's case, highlighting the need for an alternative narrative.

💡Prism

In the video, a prism is used as an analogy to describe an alternative way of viewing and understanding complex issues, such as intersectionality. The prism allows for a more comprehensive view that includes the simultaneous impacts of multiple forms of discrimination.

💡Socially Marginalized

Socially marginalized refers to individuals or groups who are pushed to the edge of society and denied equal access to social, economic, and political resources. The video discusses how intersectionality affects not only African-American women but also other women of color and socially marginalized people around the world.

Highlights

Introduction of the term 'intersectionality' to address overlapping social justice issues like racism and sexism.

The story of Emma de Graaff, an African-American woman facing double discrimination.

Emma's unsuccessful job application and her belief in racial and gender bias.

The judge's dismissal of Emma's case due to the employer hiring African Americans and women.

The judge's failure to recognize the specific discrimination faced by African-American women.

The court's refusal to allow Emma to combine race and gender discrimination claims.

The concept of 'injustice squared' as experienced by black women.

The lack of legal recognition for the unique discrimination faced by African-American women.

The importance of naming a problem to see and solve it.

The framing problem in anti-discrimination law and the need for an alternative narrative.

The analogy of an intersection to explain the simultaneous impacts of race and gender discrimination.

The idea that laws should address the intersection of discrimination, not just individual instances.

The term 'intersectionality' as a way to describe the complex experiences of marginalized groups.

The challenges faced by women of color and other socially marginalized people due to intersectionality.

The intersection of various social dynamics creating unique challenges.

The importance of recognizing and addressing intersectionality in social justice movements.

Transcripts

many years ago I began to use the term

intersectionality to deal with the fact

that many of our social justice problems

like racism and sexism are often

overlapping creating multiple levels of

social injustice now the experience that

gave rise to intersectionality was my

chance encounter with a woman named Emma

de Graaff and read emma de Graaff and

read was an african-american woman a

working wife and a mother I actually

read about him a story from the pages of

a legal opinion written by a judge who

had dismissed

Emma's claim of race and gender

discrimination against a local car

manufacturing plant Emma like so many

african-american women sought better

employment for her family and for others

she wanted to create a better life for

her children and for her family but she

applied for a job and she was not hired

and she believed that she was not hired

because she was a black woman now the

judge in question dismissed emma suit

and the argument for dismissing the suit

was that the employer did hire African

Americans and the employer hired women

the real problem though that the judge

was not willing to acknowledge was what

Emma was actually trying to say that the

African Americans that were hired

usually for industrial jobs maintenance

jobs were all men and the women that

were hired usually for secretarial or

our front office work we're all white

only if the court was able to see how

these policies came together would he be

able to see the double discrimination

that Emmitt DeGraaf and Reid was facing

but the court refused to allow Emma to

put two causes of action together to

tell her story because he

believe that by allowing her to do that

she would be able to have preferential

treatment she have an advantage by being

able to have two swings after that when

african-american men and white women

only had one swing at the bat but of

course neither african-american men or

white women needed to combine a race and

gender discrimination claim to tell the

story of the discrimination they were

experiencing why wasn't the real

unfairness laws refusal to protect

African American women simply because

their experiences weren't exactly the

same as white women and african-american

men rather than broadening the frame to

include African American women the court

simply tossed their case completely out

of court now as a student of

anti-discrimination law as a feminist as

an anti-racist

I was struck by this case it felt to me

like injustice squared so so first of

all black women weren't allowed to work

at the plant second of all the court

doubled down on this exclusion by making

it legally inconsequential and to boot

there was no name for this problem and

we all know that where there's no name

for a problem you can't see a problem

and when you can't see a problem you

pretty much can't solve it many years

later I'd come to recognize that the

problem that Emma was facing was a

framing problem the frame that the court

was using to see gender discrimination

or to see race discrimination was

partial and it was distorting for me the

challenge that I faced was trying to

figure out whether there was an

alternative narrative a prism that would

allow us to

see Emma's dilemma a prism that would

allow us to rescue her from the cracks

in the law that would allow judges to

see her story so it occurred to me maybe

a simple analogy to an intersection

might allow judges to better see Emma's

dilemma so if we think about this

intersection the roads to the

intersection would be the way that the

workforce was structured by race and by

gender and then the traffic in those

roads would be the hiring policies and

and the other practices that ran through

those roads now because emma was both

black and female she was positioned

precisely where those roads overlapped

experiencing the simultaneous impacts of

the companies gender and race traffic

the law the law was like that ambulance

that shows up and is ready to treat Emma

only if it can be shown that she was

harmed on the race road or on the gender

road but not where those roads

intersected so what do you call being

impacted by multiple forces and then

abandon to fend for yourself

intersectionality seem to do it for me I

would go on to learn that

african-american women like other women

of color like other socially

marginalized people all over the world

we're facing all kinds of dilemmas and

challenges as a consequence of

intersectionality intersections of race

and and gender of heterosexism

transphobia xenophobia ableism all of

these social dynamics come together and

create challenges that are sometimes

quite unique