If you have ever felt as though you were Sisyphus who was condemned to a meaningless existence, lifting, pushing, and franticly struggling to achieve purpose in life, while furiously striving to triumph over an oppressor then maybe you too are one of the many whom have been subjugated, marginalized, sexually assaulted or have been forgotten by the factories, the offices, and the law.
In the Myth of Sisyphus Camus states, “The workman of today works every day in his life at the same tasks, and this fate is no less absurd. But it is tragic only at the rare moments when it becomes conscious”(Camus, 1942) and I believe that we are more conscious than given credit. How then can we charge the mountain to challenge adversity, sexism, racism, and break down those social constructs in our everyday lives in the hopes to create equality? One way of facing these challenges is through the academic lens of Kimberlé Crenshaw professor at UCLA and Columbia Law School who helped to develop the Theory of Intersectionality. It is my belief that Intersectionality, if understood, can be applied to our every day lives to better help analyze personal communication and sexuality. It grants the ability to break down multifaceted issues that seem meaningless to challenge in todays’ society.
Intersectionality can be hard to understand, but if broken into two words, the meaning is easier to grasp. If we start at the simplest of understanding The Merriam-Webster’s definition of intersection states, “1: The act or process of intersecting, 2: A place or area where two or more things (such as streets) intersect, and 3A: The set of elements common to two or more sets.” While intersectionality refers to the reality that we all have multiple identities that intersect to make us who we are. Intersectionality also allows us to examine the dynamics of race, gender, and the identities that surround and overlap to reinforce one another. This term was coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in her 1989 paper, “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics” to help explain the marginalization of black women.
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For example, black women face racism and sexism, while black males only face racism this, “Demonstrates that no one axis of oppression (race, gender, sexuality, class) can be regarded separately from all the others” (Barker, Scheele p47), because it is convoluted interaction where unequal power and identities give structure to any given experience. These experiences can be contradictory and diverse often taking on various forms and distinctions given the context. Kimberlé Crenshaw drew her ideas from former feminists of the 19 century like Anna Julia Cooper, Maria Stewart and from 20 century feminists like Angela Davis and Deborah King who, “Have articulated the need to think and talk about race through a lens that looks at gender, or think and talk about feminism through a lens that looks at race. So this is in continuity with that” as Crenshaw states in her April 2014 article, “Kimberlé Crenshaw on intersectionality: I wanted to come up with an everyday metaphor that anyone could use” and ironically is also on the Brainy Quotes web site.
On May 4, 1976, Emma Degraffenreid, plaintiffs, verses General Motors Assembly, St. Louis, A corporation, et al., Defendants, was an United States District Court case of the Eastern District of Missouri that gave arise to Crenshaw becoming inspired to create a way for the justice system to understand, “These problems of exclusion cannot be solved simply by including Black women within an already established analytical structure.” (Crenshaw 1989) Emma Degraffenreid and four other black women argued to the court that the “last hired-first fired” motto of General Motors have discriminated against them as black women. Unfortunately, attempts to combined sex-based discrimination and racial discrimination into a new special subcategory would “combine statutory remedies to create a new ‘super-remedy’ which would give them relief beyond what the drafters of the relevant statutes intended. Thus, this lawsuit must be examined to see if it states a cause of action for race discrimination, sex discrimination, or alternatively either, but not a combination of both” (DeGraffenreid v.GENERAL MOTORS, 1976) according to District Jude Wangelin.
The court’s opinion was that General Motors was not guilty of sexual discrimination, because the defendants have hired female employees in the years prior to the civil rights act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. and that, “Last hired, First fired” does not discriminate based on sex. The second matter of race, alleges that passed illegal discrimination in combination with the,“last hired first fired” perpetuate discrimination and therefore, violates the civil rights act of 1964. The court prospected that if the case was consolidated with the Mosley lawsuit that plaintiffs would have a stronger case. Unfortunately the Mosley lawsuit was purely about racial discrimination unlike Degraffenreid that was both sex and race discrimination. The court found,“The legislative history surrounding Title VII does not indicate that the goal of the statute was to create a new classification of then ‘black women’ who would have greater standing then, for example, a black male. The prospect of the creation of new classes of protected minorities” (DeGraffenreid v.GENERAL MOTORS,1976) would open the pandoras box.
It is Kimberlé Crenshaw’s belief that one way to examine intersectionality is to interpret how the judicial system frames the stories of black women in the court room. In the case of DeGraffenreid v.GENERAL MOTORS, Crenshaw concludes, “Thus, the court apparently concluded that Congress either did not contemplate that Black women could be discriminated against as “Black women” or did not intend to protect them when such discrimination occurred” (Crenshaw, 1989) and these issues are just as relevant today as they were in 1976. This then equates that the issue of racial and sexual discrimination encountered by black women are not acknowledged by the judicial system and are then defined by the lived experiences of black men and caucasian women. If black women are marginalized and are only protected as long as their experiences mirror one of the two groups black women will never be safe. It is my belief that where the courts, the feminists, and the civil rights thinkers have failed intersectionality could have successfully prevailed. If individuals are willing to gaze deeper into the lived experiences of the subjected, we as a social structure cannot evolve and create true equality.
It is my belief that Intersectionality, if understood, can be applied to our every day lives to better help analyze personal communication and sexuality. It grants the ability to break down multifaceted issues that seem meaningless to challenge in todays’ society. The article, Toward a Field of Intersectionality Studies: Theory, Applications, and Praxis by Cho, Crenshaw and McCall state,“We focus in greater detail on the political dimensions of intersectionality, with an emphasis on questions of how intersectionality is implemented—literally put into practice in policies and social movements around the world,” (Cho, Crenshaw, McCall 2013) thus giving the ability to break down old systems of oppression. Over the years the concept of Intersectionality has influenced,“History, sociology, literature, philosophy, and anthropology as well as in feminist studies, ethnic studies, queer studies, and legal studies” (Cho, Crenshaw, McCall p. 787) fostering the consideration of race, gender, and the axes of power by,“examining the dynamics of difference and sameness.” (Cho, Crenshaw, McCall p. 787) Unlike Sisyphus this uphill battle is slow, but it is not meaningless, all is well and it will end.
Citation
- Crenshaw, Kimberle () “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics,” University of Chicago Legal Forum: Vol. 1989: Iss. 1, Article 8.
- Available at: http://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf/vol1989/iss1/8
- Cho, S., Crenshaw, K. W., & Mccall, L. (2013). Toward a Field of Intersectionality Studies: Theory, Applications, and Praxis. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 38(4), 785–810. doi: 10.1086/669608
- Barker, M. J., & Scheele, J. (2016). Queer: a graphic history. London: Icon.
- CAMUS, A. L. B. E. R. T. (2018). Myth Of Sisyphus. Place of publication not identified: VINTAGE.
- DeGraffenreid v. GENERAL MOTORS ASSEMBLY DIV., ETC., 413 F. Supp. 142 (E.D. Mo. 1976). (n.d.). Retrieved from https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/413/142/1660699/.
- Adewunmi, B., & Adewunmi, B. (2014, April 2). Kimberlé Crenshaw on intersectionality: “I wanted to come up with an everyday metaphor that anyone could use”. Retrieved from https://www.newstatesman.com/lifestyle/2014/04/kimberl-crenshaw-intersectionality-i-wanted-come-everyday-metaphor-anyone-could.
