katblaque: lymmea:katblaque: Here’s a handy thread I wrote about Intersectionality and its m
katblaque: lymmea: katblaque: Here’s a handy thread I wrote about Intersectionality and its misuse. You can read Crenshaw’s original piece here and watch my video about intersectionality here I 110% agree that the word ‘intersectionality’ was being totally misused when describing Don Cheadle wearing a trans-positive shirt. On the other hand, I feel like I can see what the person was going for when they said it - to me, it reads as though they were trying to praise the efforts of one oppressed minority stepping up to speak for a different oppressed minority - to call attention to a form of marginalization he doesn’t personally experience, but still wants to help end. And that’s a good thing! But yeah, we don’t call that intersectionality; that word means something totally different.Though I wonder, personally, if intersectionality isn’t being misused in this way because there’s an absence of a word we need here to describe the sort of behavior on display here. I’m not sure if we have a shortform description of that particular form of action, tbh. Possibly coining a new phrase would help people differentiate? (For the record, it’s 3:43 AM, so if I’m just fucking blanking on a word for this that absolutely already exists, excuse my idiocy.)‘Ally’ doesn’t work, because even the most privileged, non-systemically-oppressed person can be an ally, and we’re talking specifically about a member of one marginalized group supporting a marginalized group they don’t belong to. Solidarity and support have the same problem(though they’re certainly closer to the mark and both words tend to come up in other discussions about this topic); privilege doesn’t prevent you from offering support and showing solidarity for a marginalized group, so nothing about that specifies one marginalized identity reaching out to support another.I feel like the best kind of phrase I can think of for this is ‘inter-community support’? Which doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. But it does in fact convey the specific act of a member/multiple members of one marginalized group showing support for another.I’d like to hear other thoughts on this, but mostly I’m trying to suggest a word for this concept because I think, if one exists, then intersectionality might stop getting misused as much by people who don’t have a better term for the idea they’re trying to convey. I honestly think you’re over thinking it. Allyship and solidarity work just fine. We don’t need to misuse a black woman’s scholarly contributions. And yes, everyone can be and should be an ally, even the marginalized can be allies to people who experience different forms of discrimination. “Allyship” isn’t something only rich cis white people should do. Ironically, Intersectionality wasn’t created just to address how white women were ignoring black women, but how black men were ignoring black women. So within its creation is this idea that the marginalized should still understand and work to address the discrimination that is not their own. This post bothered me because there was a slight subtext that it was uncommon or unheard of for a black cis man to support trans children. And sure, maybe that’s true to some degree, but that criticism by a white person makes me incredibly uncomfortable. White queer folks have a long history of on one hand dismissing the black community as inherently ignorant, while appropriating the culture that comes from the strong deep communities black queer folk create for themselves. I don’t think you can have it both ways. Don Cheadle is a black man, but he’s cis, and famous. Using your platform to highlight the discrimination others face is allyship by definition. -- source link