03/08/2024
Good morning y'all. In order to celebrate International Women's Day, because you know we get a day now, and National Women's Month which apparently is all of March, I'd like to talk a little bit today about intersectionality. So what the heck is intersectionality? If you've heard the word you probably have an idea of what it means. So let's talk about it.
The term intersectionality was first coined by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw in 1989, but it refers back to a 1974 court case, DeGraffenreid v General Motors. Emma DeGraffenreid was a black woman who was denied employment at General Motors. She sued for discrimination under the 1969 Civil Rights Act. The law protected Blacks and Women as to hiring. Her lawyers' position was that General Motors acted to subvert the law by hiring Black men and White women but no Black women. They argued that the intersection of those two protected classes formed a new class that itself deserved protection. The Court did not agree.
Crenshaw took the basic argument of the case and applied it to the social and political landscape. If a company like GM was forced to hire Blacks and Women but their culture was predominantly White and male, they would want to hire as close to their culture as possible. So if they're forced to hire Blacks, they will hire Black men because their culture is male. And if they are forced to hire Women they will hire White women, because their culture is White.
That "intersectionality" of oppression creates gaps where people who are in two oppressed classes advance much more slowly. And we have seen this to be true in pretty much all areas of society. I recently broke down the numbers for Grammy winners, and while both Black men and White women were still underrepresented, they far outpaced Black women. Jay Z was right about that.
But Crenshaw's genius was in understanding that this concept can be applied across all areas of discrimination. Laws can only go so far to try to create a level playing field, and sometimes the law backfires for people in the crosshairs of more than one area of discrimination.
Take myself as an example. I am a woman and I am over 50, both protected classes under the law. So good for me, right? I have two ways in. Or do I? If a company(or school, or writing contest, or agent, or the Academy...you get the picture) needs to hire more women, they will probably chose a younger woman. Because if they have to hire someone outside their male comfort zone, at least that person is similar in age. And if they have to hire more older people, they will probably chose an older man. Because again, he may not be in their age cohort but he will be familiar in his maleness.
And for those of you who are responding "but things have changed so much, it isn't really a white male youth culture anymore" let me just tell you, no they haven't. I went to a television conference a couple of months ago where in a room of about 250 people there were three blacks, eight women, maybe a dozen gay men, and the rest were white straight men in their thirties. So, yeah, that is who runs the entertainment industry, and the world.
Still.
So what do we do about this? And who is responsible? Are white women responsible for the fact that black women are caught in the crosshairs of intersectionality? Is it the responsibility of black men to make sure that their sisters are equally represented with them? Is it really the responsibility of the oppressed classes to make sure that other oppressed classes are equally represented?
Obviously not. But there is something to be learned here. I have heard many women of color say that the feminist movement is culturally a white movement. And I have also heard them say that there is an understanding in the black community that men go first and women wait their turn.
So as the oppressed, we can be aware and politically active to fight for all oppressed groups and not just our own. We can also fight for a more equal playing field across the board. And maybe most importantly, we can support and defend each other. We can refuse to be divided, and pitted against each other. That's never going to get us anywhere and it is just what the culture of inequality is hoping for.
When women win, we all win. When Black men win, we all win. When Gay and Trans people win, we all win. When Muslims and Jews win, we all win. It's going to take a lot to get us all across the finish line. Let's make sure we are all pulling together.
So... it's International Woman's Day. How will you celebrate Women today?
All women.
