Okay, so real quick, I feel like I really need to explain intersectionality to white people because stuff like this, even though it's well meaning is getting on my nerves. It's really hard to see a black woman's work be misused over and over again by progressives/well meaning ppl https://twitter.com/RheaButcher/status/1097228767766896640

So, Don Cheadle wearing a shirt that ways "protect trans kids" is amazing and I support the hell out of it, but it is not "intersectionality". That's not what that means.

Within, I'd say, mostly white political spaces, it's very easy for people to confuse "Intersectionality" with "inclusion" or "being considerate" for other identities. It's also easy to think it's all about a combination of identities, but it's not exactly that.

Firstly, I've made a really short and easy to understand video about this on my Youtube Channel. Check it out if you'd like to hear this explanation rather than read it.

Intersectionality was a term coined by a black woman named Kimberle Crenshaw, (who by the way is still alive @sandylocks ), in 1989. It's a term that she created in her paper she wrote for the Chicago Legal Forum. Full Text can be found here: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1052&context=uclf

To summarize what she meant when she defined intersectionality: It was about how black women were erased in conversations about discrimination because the feminist movement and the civil rights movement focused largely on its most privileged members.

So feminism, at the time (and arguably still) focused largely on white women's experiences with sexism and the civil rights movement focused, at the time (and arguably still) focused on how black men experienced racism. So black women's experiences had to be measured against that

Meaning that in several legal cases, explained in the document and my video, if a black woman's experiences with discrimination weren't paralleled to how black men experience racism and white women experience sexism, their cases were dismissed or thrown out.

So you had cases where black women would sue a company for racial discrimination and then you'd have the judge say that it was impossible for that to be true, because they currently employed black people. The problem was, the black people were all men.

And you'd have cases where they'd sue the company for being sexist, but they'd say that was impossible because they currently employed several women. The problem being, those women were all white.

And then you'd have cases where black women sued on behalf of themselves and black men for racial discrimination and their experiences were dismissed because their experiences as a woman, don't negate their experiences as men. Black women were unable to represent their own.

So the bones of intersectionality really has to do with the ways in which black women, specifically, have been ignored and dismissed because of the more mainstream view of what sexism and racism looks like.

So, intersectionality is about viewing discrimination outside of the single axis view of discrimination where individuals are only impacted by singular forms of discrimination (white women by sexism, black men by racism).

It's an acknowledgement that sometimes these things intersect. That sometimes it's racism and sexism, sometimes it's just racism and sometimes it's just sexism. But it's about opening up to the idea that it isn't just one of these things. It can frequently be more than one.

Which is why people often think it's about multiple identities, but really it's about multiple types of discrimination that can frequently inform each other.

For example, Women who are disabled are at a higher risk of sexual assault. When those women are black, that increases their risk of sexual assault.

So in that situation, you have people who have multiple identities, that face discriminations that often inform each other.

What Don Cheadle is doing here is called allyship. He is using his privilege as a cis man w/ access to an audience to spotlight transgender children. He is advocating for their protection and I think, within the scope of Hollywood, this is pretty radical and took a lot of guts.

I think he should be celebrated for it. But please do not call this "intersectional", because it isn't. Him being a black man... and an adult isn't really inching near what we're discussing when we discuss intersectionality.

Intersectionality CAN look like a person outside of one group advocating for another, but the optics of this aren't quite that. It's allyship and I think that should be celebrated without misusing the work of a black woman and a scholar.

The meaning and use of Intersectionality has expanded beyond black women's experiences, but it will always be about understanding the ways in which multiple types of discrimination inform each other.

As a black woman who is trans, and thus at a higher risk of violence, it's important to me and my understanding of the world.
Let's not warp it into a feel good thing about a mixture of identities. Let's keep the definition and use consistent because it is important.

If you got something from this thread, feel free to support me by tipping me or becoming a member of my Patreon family.
Venmo: Kathryn-wilkins
Cashapp: $katblaque
PayPal: [email protected]
( http://www.patreon.com/katblaque  ) $5 members get early access to videos!