Intersectionality

Intersectionality 

The first time I heard the term intersectionality was the summer of 2016. I had just joined Teach Form America and was in Providence, Rhode Island for our summer training. We were at Brown University for a tour and our guide took time to explain a piece of art that had many lines crisscrossed over one another. Our tour guide stopped to discuss how this display was used to represent the importance of acknowledging intersectionality. Everyone around me nodding their heads in understanding. I remember thinking to myself, "what is that?...I don't know what we are talking about right now". Later that day, TFA held a diversity, equity, and inclusiveness (DEI) session on intersectionality. We had several discussions about our own intersection and what that means for us as individuals. We then advanced that conversation to discuss the intersections of our potential students and what that meant for us as teachers. During this session, I realized for the 3rd time, how unaware I was and completely unprepared to teach my students.

I believe that Kimberle Crenshaw's Ted Talk does a good job explaining why I wasn't as aware and why most people aren't either. She suggests that there is no framework to consider the affect of overlapping social justice problems and therefore each problem is considered independently of the other. But, in fact, they are dependent on each other. Furthermore, she continues on to say that since there is no framework, the problem is not properly seen, and since it isn't seen, it cant be fixed.

Up until Teach For America, I lived a very sheltered life, I was the chemistry nerd that spent most her time in a lab, rarely ever looking at the news or even challenging myself to see past my own nose. Without the help of Teach For America, I wonder if I would have ever been given the proper framework to see these intersections. I can help but cringe at the thought.

I truly believe that informing people about intersectionality is incredibly important! As a society, we need to stop thinking that one thing is either the cause or solution to a problem. Over simplification is just a way to not handle the social injustice and keep the same systems running. We need to start seeing how these issues intersect and depend on one another. They can either help each other grow or they can weaken each other. It is important to understand this relationship and stop viewing them separately.

I cant say that I am by any means an expert on this topic, I just learned about it little over a year ago. So my awareness and understanding are still being worked though and expressed. However, at this moment I do know that I believe in the effect of intersectionality and want to make sure I keep providing myself and my peers with a correct framework.


Also, this is a bit off topic but I find it very interesting that the word intersectionality is considered a missspelled word. Every time I write intersectionality, it is then underlined by that well known red-line. So, as of right now, according to this websites programming, intersectionality is not seen as a "proper" word. Who decides what words are right and wrong? Could it be that this website/internet was programmed without the framework to recognize intersectionality?

Thank you for reading my post and joining me on my journey as I work through these important ideas!

Best,
Ellie