Here is search result form youtube that came up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e92jxFbW2_A
In the video, Karma Chavez says that there are ways to "do intersectionality" in our daily lives. Does this make sense in the way Crenshaw uses the word?
Doing intersectionality for Karma Chavez has two uses: 1) reach across cultural boarders, and 2) bring everyone to a cause that they all believe. This does not seem to mean the same things as Crenshaw suggests in Mapping the Margins, where intersectionality is the name for the general experience of black women.
I find it difficult to understand Crenshaw because of the scattered/loose definition of words such as intersectionality and the difficult language. Does anyone else have that problem and how do you deal with it?
Briana,
ReplyDeleteI totally understand struggling with Crenshaw's concepts. My first introduction to intersectionality was not through her work (although she did coin the term), which made it easier for me to grasp because woah Crenshaw is brilliant/sometimes over my head. For me, it helps me to understand intersectionality when I think about the word itself. "Intersectionality" is meant to encompass the intersections of various privileges/disadvantages that one has in a hierarchical society. For instance, where my identity as a queer person and my identity as a white person intersect, this creates a different experience than would exist if I were only a queer person or only a white person. Crenshaw means to explain that my experience is not simply the experience of a queer person plus the experience of a white person, but rather these different privileges/disadvantages effect each other to create a totally different experience. Does that make sense?