Interview
‘Always ask: does this approach work for everyone? A woman of colour can experience a different type of discrimination than a man of colour does; a different combination of vulnerabilities often leads to a different experience. Unfortunately, not everybody sees that, claims American Professor of Law, Kimberlé Crenshaw. She is trying to change our framework of thinking through ‘intersectionality’. By Aafke Kok
A
puzzle: a father and his son were seriously injured in a car accident. The ambulance sped to the hospital. On arrival, the surgeon said: ‘I cannot perform surgery, this is my son.’ What is going on here? Even human rights advocate and Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw (UCLA School of Law, Columbia Law School) had to think for a while when she first heard this, until she figured out that the surgeon in this puzzle was the injured son’s mother. If the facts do not fit within our framework of thinking, we disregard the facts. A female surgeon does not match our standard picture and, therefore, we overlook her. When Crenshaw speaks to large audiences, she sometimes tests them. She reads
8 | New Scientist | special diversity matters
out names one by one. Anyone who does not know the person must sit down. After naming a few names, the entire audience is back in their seats. Crenshaw then explains what these names have in common: they are all names of women of colour who died as a consequence of police brutality. Even people campaigning against police brutality towards people of colour barely know these names, although women of colour are probably a group that is even more vulnerable to the police. And yet we do not see them. It was Crenshaw who introduced the term ‘intersectionality’ to describe these sorts of problems. This term refers to thinking in terms of intersections. At such intersections, different identities come together, which can lead to layered forms of discrimination, such as discrimination based on both gender and on race. ‘Intersectionality is a framework that can help us to find out how different forms of exclusion can happen at the same time,’ says Crenshaw. ‘This coming together
of identities often has effects that people, from employers to activists, do not recognize.’ It is a metaphor to show that different forms of exclusion can overlap, which causes new obstacles. Does intersectionality apply to us all?
‘It depends entirely on the context. Intersectionality is not a formula. It is a way of describing circumstances in which you – if you are vulnerable to one form of discrimination – can also feel the impact of a different form of discrimination. You can use it to identify how some burdens or forms of exclusion can be made worse. For example, women can experience discrimination in many different ways. These experiences can have more of an impact on women who are also, for example, immigrants, or who are also disabled. It can happen anywhere. I mainly write, both publicly and privately, about law, conceptualization, representation in the media and violence. But people can experience the
