My biggest problem with the satirical piece editor-in-chief Daniel Banta published last week is his definition of intersectionality.
To some, intersectionality may be the act of looking past similarities to focus on differences, as his Charles Koch notes at the end of the piece. This seems to be a very anti-Affirmative Action perspective. To those of us at SLU who have actually taken the time to enroll in literally any introductory-level gender or sociology class and actually care about combatting (or at least spreading awareness of) systems of oppression on campus/in America/on a global scale, it is understood as something very different- perhaps even the opposite of what was depicted in that op-ed.
Patricia Hill Collins is known for coining the matrix of domination, a paradigm that explains that issues of oppression dealing with race, class, gender, sexual orientation, religion, etc. are all interconnected, even if their classification says otherwise. The matrix of domination serves as a kind of framework for how oppression and privilege function on different levels of society. Kimberlé Crenshaw expands on Collins’ matrix of domination in her definition of intersectionality, which looks at systems of oppression and privilege on a more downsized, individual scale. Intersectionality is used more often to understand someone’s specific social location within multiple systems of oppression. Banta’s unemployed white coal miner experiences oppression differently than his one-armed trans Somali refugee- super edgy, by the way.
When people use intersectional approaches to define themselves (a middle-class, lesbian Latina or a white, single father of three), they are not putting forth their RSVP to the Oppression Olympics. A middle-class lesbian Latina is not saying, “I have it worse” to a straight, working-class Latina; she is saying “I experience oppression differently than you, but the fact still stands that we are both experiencing oppression and both of our experiences are valid.”
Intersectionality is a platform meant to foster dialogue and change. Intersectionality is not a ranking system.
Like Banta, I’m also a white dude. I understand that if we haven’t experienced the oppression others have faced, it’s hard to gauge its impact or what it looks like, or if it even exists at all. There is an article I read way back in my first year that really got me thinking about intersectionality and my position in things: “Triple Jeopardy and Beyond: Multiple Minority Stress and Resilience Among Black Lesbians” by Lisa Bowleg and colleagues. I hope it might give those with opinions, like Banta, a better understanding of what intersectionality really is and what it is not.