Intersectional Analysis Kimberly Crenshaw

Gender Studies Mid Term Essay

2. Demonstrate how an intersectional analysis works by applying it to a recent (2015) news item. Refer to at least 2 articles in the Unit Reader (week 1-7), and please include a scan of the news item as part of your submission. Note: the news item must be from a major newspaper, and not a blog or an opinion piece.

Intersectionality, the discrimination of individuals based on interrelated components of their identity, is a significant and common issue consistently faced by women of colour. In August of this year, an African American woman, Charnesia Corely, was publically stripped and cavity searched by Texas police without a warrant or her consent, at a petrol station. In performing an intersectional analysis

Crenshaw recognised the insufficient way in which the law addressed matters relating to both gender and race discrimination, and in her investigation of this, conceived the term ‘intersectionality’. The law was unwilling to create specific legislation to provide justice for women of colour, as they were afraid of creating an unfairly advantaged “superclass”. Instead, the law insisted upon treating sex and race discrimination as separate issues. Furthermore, Crenshaw addresses women of colour having the fastest growing incarceration rates of any group and family breakdown as a result of this. These matters that Crenshaw addresses are indisputable and are reflected in the discriminatory circumstances faced by Charnesia Corley. Corley experienced discrimination based on her minority status as an African American woman, potentially of a lower socio-economic status. In her unjust encounter with police, she was charged unusually harshly, and treated without respect to the point where her rights were breached. This article reiterates Crenshaw’s conception of intersectional discrimination and highlights a serious problem in terms of prejudice and the ‘invisibility of the black

She stresses the point of Aboriginal women being portrayed as an “other” in these areas, arguing that the middle class white feminist cannot understand their position and are often indifferent and complacent towards the situation. In analysing the issues for Aboriginal women that Moreton-Robinson suggests, we can adapt these experiences to those faced by intersectional groups, particularly women of colour. This is crucial to consider in Corley’s case, as her experience is unique and targeted. Being degraded, humiliated, abused and stereotyped by police, societal figures intended for protection, is essentially limited to minority groups. It is essential when performing an intersectional analysis to ask if an individual from a majority group, such as a white man or woman, would face the same treatment or experience in a similar