Crenshaw On Intersectionality

5/6/2016
KimberlCrenshawonintersectionality:Iwantedtocomeupwithaneverydaymetaphorthatanyonecoulduse
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KIMBERL CRENSHAW WITH EVE ENSLER. PHOTO: GETTY
SHOW IMAGE
FEMINISM
2 APRIL 2014
Kimberl Crenshaw on
intersectionality: I wanted
to come up with an everyday
metaphor that anyone could
use
Intersectionality the theory of how

dierent types of discrimination
interact - has brought law professor
http://www.newstatesman.com/lifestyle/2014/04/kimberlcrenshawintersectionalityiwantedcomeeverydaymetaphoranyonecould
1/29
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Kimberl Crenshaw global attention.

Here, she talks to Bim Adewunmi
about how both feminist and antiracist campaigns have left women
of colour invisible in plain sight.
BY BIM
ADEWUNMI
Facebook
Twitter
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imberl Crenshaws ears must

have been burning with alarming
regularity and intensity over the last

couple of years. We meet in one of the
dining rooms of her hotel in central
Email
London, her base while shes on a

whistlestop lecture tour. Two days before
our meeting she spoke at the School of
Oriental and African Studies, and later
this evening, she will speak at the
London School of Economics. Her subject
is intersectionality and feminism. In
recent times,intersectionality theory
the study of how dierent power
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structures interact in the lives of

minorities, specically black women, a
theory she named in the 1980s has
enjoyed a resurgence in popular and
academic feminism. Her name and her
work has become an introductory point
for feminists of all stripes.
Of course, she says, the concept of
intersectionality is not exactly new. So
many of the antecedents to it are as old
as Anna Julia Cooper, and Maria Stewart
in the 19th century in the US, all the way
King, she says. In every generation and

in every intellectual sphere and in every
MORE
through Angela Davis and Deborah
political moment, there have been

African American women who have
articulated
New Statesman 1913 - 2016
the need to think and talkABOUT US
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.
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Angela Davis arrives at court in 1972. Photo:

Getty
For Crenshaw, a law professor at UCLA
and Columbia, intersectionality theory
came about specically to address a
particular problem. Its important to
clarify that the term was used to capture
the applicability of black feminism to
anti-discrimination law, she says.
Inthe lecture she delivered at the LSE
later that evening, she brought up the
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case ofDegraenreid vs General Motors, in

which ve black women sued GM on the
grounds of race and gender
discrimination. The particular challenge
in the law was one that was grounded in
the fact that anti-discrimination law
looks at race and gender separately, she
says. The consequence of that is when
African American women or any other
women of colour experience either
compound or overlapping discrimination,
the law initially just was not there to
come to their defence.
The courts thinking was that black
women could not prove gender
discrimination because not all women
were discriminated against, and they
couldnt prove race discrimination
because not all black people were
discriminated against. A compound
discrimination suit would, in the courts
eyes, constitute preferential treatment,
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something nobody else could do.

Crenshaw laughs when she adds: Of
course, no one elsehadto do that.
Intersectionality was a way of addressing
what it was that the courts werent
seeing.
Cases like these informed much of her
earlier work on intersectionality trying
to show how these African American
plaintis' arguments rested on the ability
to show that the discrimination they
were experiencing was the combination
of two dierent kinds of policies. But
there was an additional point to the
theory as well: pointing out that the tools
being used to remedy the overlapping
discrimination anti-discrimination law
- were themselves inadequate. Youve
got to show that the kind of
discrimination people have
conceptualised is limited because they
stop their thinking when the
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discrimination encounters another kind

of discrimination, she says. I wanted
to come up with a common everyday
metaphor that people could use to say:
its well and good for me to understand
the kind of discriminations that occur
along this avenue, along this axis - but
what happens when it ows into another
axis, another avenue?
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Laid out like this, it may seem baing

that so many have had a problem with
the idea of intersectionality. What is it, I
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asked Crenshaw, that makes it so

dicult for people to grasp? She pauses
briey before she answers. Im only
speculating, but there lots of dierent
reasons. I mean, intersectionality is not
easy, she says. Its not as though the
existing frameworks that we have - from
our culture, our politics or our law automatically lead people to being
conversant and literate in
intersectionality.
On the charge that intersectionality is not
new, she gets philosophical. Well, a lot
of things arent new, she says. Class is
not new and race is not new. And we still
continue to contest and talk about it, so
whats so unusual about intersectionality
not being new and therefore thats not a
reason to talk about it? Intersectionality
draws attention to invisibilities that exist
in feminism, in anti-racism, in class
politics, so obviously it takes a lot of
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work to consistently challenge ourselves

to be attentive to aspects of power that
we dont ourselves experience. But, she
stresses, this has been the project of
black feminism since its very inception:
drawing attention to the erasures, to the
ways that women of colour are invisible
in plain sight.
Within any power system, she
continues, there is always a moment and sometimes it lasts a century - of
resistance to the implications of that. So
we shouldnt really be surprised about
it.
There is sometimes a failure to make
analogies, she says. Feminists who have
answers for the questions of class politics
and how it plays out along gender lines
sometimes exhibit an unwillingness to
apply the same principles around
feminism and race. That ability to be
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intersectional - even though its not

called that - isnt replicated in [this]
conversation, she says. I think that the
same kind of openness and uidity and
willingness to interrogate power that we
as feminists expect from men in alliance
on questions of class should also be the
expectation that women of colour can
rely upon with our white feminist allies.
I bring up a tweet I recently read, about
the perils of yelling at white women for
a living to ask what form pushback
takes when discussing intersectionality
in feminism. At the end of the day, it
really is a question of power: who has the
power to end the debate? To walk away?
To say, Im done talking about it, and I
can go on with my rhetoric in a business
as usual kind of response? She smiles.
Sometimes it feels like those in power
frame themselves as being tremendously
disempowered by critique. A critique of
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ones voice isnt taking it away. If the

underlying assumption behind the
category women or feminist is that we
are a coalition then there have to be
coalitional practices and some form of
accountability.
But she also stresses the importance of
black feminists being the originators of
dialogues about their own experience.
When I was writing in the late 80s,
there was a strain of discourse among
women who were not the subjects of
traditional feminism, to simply make
critique a dierence, she says. So just
the claim of woman or feminist,
prompted some women of colour to say,
but thats not me. Well, yeah - that
might not be you. But say what dierence
it makes that its not you - what
dierence does it make in what kinds of
interventions come out of a feminist
frame that doesnt attend to race? She
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pauses, spreads her hands. That is our

responsibility. Its up to us. Granted, the
space has to be open and there has to be
a sense of receptivity among the
sisterhood, but I really dont want other
women to feel that its their
responsibility to theorise whats
happening to us. Its up to us to
consistently tell those stories, articulate
what dierence the dierence makes, so
its incorporated within feminism and
within anti-racism. I think its important
that we do that apart, because we dont
want to be susceptible to the idea that
this is just about the politics of
recognition.
No discussion of Crenshaw's work can be
complete without discussing the
congressional hearings of October 1991,
organised to address the claim
thatSupreme Court nominee Clarence
Thomashad sexually harassed a
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colleague, Anita Hill. In his denial of the

allegations, Thomas said it was a high
tech lynching. Crenshaw was part of the
legal team that represented Hill - and
arguably changed the course of history
with regards to the recognition of sexual
harassment in the workplace. A
documentary lm,Anita, has been made
of the events of the time, a period
Crenshaw describes as life-dening.
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Pro-Clarence Thomas demonstrators in 1991.

Photo: Getty
When we were defending Anita Hill, it
was it felt like there was 10 of us against
the whole world, she says. There was
overwhelming criticism of Anita Hill
from Clarence Thomass camp, the
Republican camp, from the White House,
from the senate judiciary committee. And
the Democrats were not defending her.
Thomass lynching comment, she says,
communicated to many African
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Americans this was a race issue - leaving

Hill with no base to rally. Lynching is
representative of the quintessential
moment of racism - and that in turn
centres African American male
experiences, she says.
Crenshaw talks about a sort of collective
forgetting - the fact that black women
were not spared from lynching
themselves, and the way that racist
sexism played out for black women
involved sexual violence that was never
prosecuted. Rosa Parks, she says, was a
rape crisis advocate before she sat down
on that Montgomery bus. The very fact
that there are a range of experiences
around sexualised racism thats not
remembered - and we only remember
one experience - is what then replayed
itself in the 1990s."
She describes coming out of the
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Capitolto nd it ringed by largely African

American women holding hands singing
gospel songs in support of Clarence
Thomas. It was like one of these
moments where you literally feel that you
have been kicked out of your community,
all because you are trying to introduce
and talk about the way that African
American women have experienced
sexual harassment and violence. It was a
dening moment.
One consequence of this was Anita Hills
claim being taken up by mainstream
white feminists - only she was stripped
of her race, reinforcing the idea that the
case was a race vs. gender issue. She
simply became a colourless woman, and
we as African American women feminists
were trying to say, you cannot talk
about this just in gender terms - you
have to be intersectional - there is a long
history you cannot ignore, but they
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didn't have the skills to be able to talk

about it, she says. That led to another
big moment: the moment when, as
Crenshaw puts it, African American
feminists had to buy their way into the
conversation.
Nearly 2,000 African American feminists
across the US collectively raised $60,000
and bought ad space in theNew York
Times. The ad, called African American
Women in Defense of Ourselves, was
signed by 1,600 women, and covered
among other things, the historical
discrimination against black women, as
well as what had been happening in the
hearings. That was a moment where
black women came forward. Twenty
years later, says Crenshaw, thathas
been forgotten. The legacy of the Anita
Hill case is one that subsequent
generations of women in the workplace
will benet from. Many women who
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talk about the Anita Hill thing, they

celebrate whats happened with women
in general: the fact that we have more
elected ocials now because they were
outraged when they saw what the men
were doing, Emilys List came in and
really helped women get elected, and so
on. So sexual harassment is now
recognised; whats not doing as well is
the recognition of black womens unique
experiences with discrimination.
The forgetting is important to note.
Crenshaw recalls the strong antiharassment work of the civil rights
movement, and speaks of a certain
ahistoricism in some of the
conversations around feminism and antiracism work.. Intersectionality was
something I wrote in 1986, 87 and
theres whole generation now that has
come to the conversation after black
feminism and other forms of
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intersectional work tilled the soil, she

says. And I think sometimes its hard for
people to imagine what the world was
like at the point when none of that work
had been done. So I think its useful to
tell genealogies that include social
histories - so people have a sense that
the way we talked about itthenwas as
against the constraints of the time. And
the way way we talk about itnowhas
built upon that.There are many things
that are forgotten, and many other things
that are elevated.
Bim Adewunmi writes about race,

feminism and popular culture. Her
blog is yorubagirldancing.com
and you can nd her on Twitter as
@bimadew.
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THE STAGGERS
6 MAY 2016
Northern Ireland election

results: a shi= beneath the
status quo
The power of the largest parties has

been maintained,while newer
parties running on nicher subjects
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with no connection to Northern

Irelands traditional religious divide
are rapidly rising.
BY
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fter a long day of counting and

tinkering with the regions
complex PR vote transfer sytem,

Northern Irish election results are slowly
starting to trickle in. Overall, the status
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quo of the largest parties has been

maintained with Sinn Fein and the
Democratic Unionist Party returning as
the largest nationalist and unionist party
respectively. However, beyond the
immediate scope of the biggest parties,
interesting changes are taking place. The
two smaller nationalist and unionist
parties appear to be losing support, while
newer parties running on nicher subjects
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with no connection to Northern Irelands

traditional religious divide are rapidly
rising.
The most signicant win of the night so
far has been Gerry Carroll from People
Before Prot who topped polls in the
Republican heartland of West Belfast.
Traditionally a Sinn Fein safe
constituency and a former seat of party
leader Gerry Adams, Carroll has won
hearts at a local level after years of
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activism. A second People Before Prot
candidate Eamon McCann also holds a
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politics have held sway with working
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focus on the constitutional question

limiting in strained economic times.
The Green party is another smaller party
which is slowly edging further into the
mainstream. As one of the only prochoice parties at Stormont which
advocates for abortion to be legalised on
a level with Great Britains 1967 Abortion
Act, the party has found itself thrust into
the spotlight in recent months following
the prosecution of a number of women
on abortion related oences.
The mixed-religion, cross-community
Alliance party has experienced mixed
results. Although it looks set to increase
its result overall, one of the best known
faces of the party, party leader David
Ford, faces the real possibility of losing
his seat in South Antrim following a poor
performance as Justice Minister. Naomi
Long, who sensationally beat First
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Minister Peter Robinson to take his East

Belfast seat at the 2011 Westminster
election before losing it again to a panunionist candidate, has been elected as
Stormont MLA for the same constituency.
Following her competent performance as
MP and eorts to reach out to both
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party and could now represent a more
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As these smaller parties slowly gain a
foothold in Northern Irelands longestablished and stagnant political
landscape, it appears to be the smaller
two nationalist and unionist parties
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moderate nationalist party the SDLP risks
losing previously safe seats such as wellknown former minister Alex Attwoods
West Belfast seat. The partys traditional,
conservative values such as upholding
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the abortion ban and failing to embrace

the campaign for same-sex marriage has
alienated younger voters who instead
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People Before Prot. Local commentators
have speculate that the party may fail to
get enough support to qualify for a
minister at the executive table.
The UUP are in a similar position on the
unionist side of the spectrum. While
popular with older voters, they lack the
charismatic force of the DUP and
progressive policies of the newer parties.
Over the course of the last parliament,
the party has aired the possibility of
forming an ocial opposition rather
than propping up the mandatory powersharing coalition set out by the peace
process. A few months ago, legislation
will nally past to allow such an
opposition to form. The UUP would not
commit to saying whether they are
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planning on being the rst party to take

up that position. However, lacklustre
election results may increase the appeal.
As the SDLP suers similar
circumstances, they might well also see
themselves attracted to the role and form
a Stormonts rst ocial opposition
together as a way of regaining relevance
and esteem in a system where smaller
parties are increasingly jostling for space.
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5/6/2016

KIMBERL CRENSHAW WITH EVE ENSLER. PHOTO: GETTY

Intersectionality the theory of how

Kimberl Crenshaw global attention.

imberl Crenshaws ears must

regularity and intensity over the last

London, her base while shes on a

structures interact in the lives of

King, she says. In every generation and

through Angela Davis and Deborah

political moment, there have been

the need to think and talkABOUT US

about race through a lens that looks at

Angela Davis arrives at court in 1972. Photo:

case ofDegraenreid vs General Motors, in

something nobody else could do.

discrimination encounters another kind

Laid out like this, it may seem baing

asked Crenshaw, that makes it so

work to consistently challenge ourselves

intersectional - even though its not

ones voice isnt taking it away. If the

pauses, spreads her hands. That is our

colleague, Anita Hill. In his denial of the

Pro-Clarence Thomas demonstrators in 1991.

Americans this was a race issue - leaving

Capitolto nd it ringed by largely African

didn't have the skills to be able to talk

talk about the Anita Hill thing, they

intersectional work tilled the soil, she

Bim Adewunmi writes about race,

Subscribe from 1 a week

Northern Ireland election

The power of the largest parties has

with no connection to Northern

fter a long day of counting and

complex PR vote transfer sytem,

quo of the largest parties has been

with no connection to Northern Irelands

focus on the constitutional question

Minister Peter Robinson to take his East

the abortion ban and failing to embrace

planning on being the rst party to take

Subscribe from 1 a week

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