My cultural background and intersectionality has influenced my professional work in different ways. My cultural background has shaped me into becoming an ambitious, hard-working individual who makes certain her end results are no less than satisfactory. My parents taught me to constantly strive for achievement. Because of the Asian stereotype of being an over-achiever and my parents’ parenting styles, I know I will be stereotyped in my professional workplace. This stereotyping of Asian will work in my favor as well as against me. My employers will come to expect much of my end results, which will encourage them to have high expectations for me. On the other hand, because my employers will expect much from me, I could potentially be promoted …show more content…
According to Crenshaw (2015), who is the executive director of the African American Policy Forum and is a professor of law at both Columbia University and the University of California, the term “intersectionality” is “an analytic sensibility, a way of thinking about identity and its relationship to power.” This essentially means that an individual is at a social disadvantage because his/her social identity overlaps with a social mistreatment such as oppression or discrimination. An example of this was a recent attempt at applying for an internship with my university’s club soccer team earlier this semester. Because the soccer club is run by students without a head coach who is normally hired through the university, the officers of the club has the final say in decisions. I have a couple of friends who are members of the university’s soccer club, and through them, I was informed that the team was looking for an intern to help out with taking statistics of each player, has had experience working with player injuries, and to help with club president/captain with managing the team and equipment. As an individual who has played the sport for more than ten years, worked as a soccer coach for four years, is currently a certified referee for the sport, has interned for the university’s men’s club lacrosse team as a team manager and has assessed player injuries, and is currently working towards a career goal of obtaining a doctorate of physical therapy, I naturally applied for the position. However, a couple of days later, I received an email from the officers of the soccer club thanking me for my application, but was denied the internship because they were “currently not looking for a team manager.” Within that same week, I remember feeling furious and discriminated when they took on a male student to help with taking the statistics for the team and as
Remember to always be aware of who you are, and that as a woman, I would face many challenges in society. In my youth, much of these family discussions were passing conversation until I reached late high school and early university days that I realised my challenges and disadvantages of being a female. For the first time in my life, university opened my eyes to the true meaning of misogyny, and how little female influence there was in the university systems, and in the workplace surrounding me. The older I became, the more exposed I was to the lack of diversity and equality women experienced, and I for one became a part of that as well. Drawing from the reading by Kimberle Crenshaw, she spoke about the antidiscrimination laws and how black female bodies’ experiences are not taken seriously in society, it captured my attention with relation to the intersectionality struggles I attempt to conquer on daily, religious basis. She is quoted saying in relation to the laws regarding black female bodies that, ‘antidiscrimination doctrine essentially erases Black women’s distinct experiences and, as a result, deems their discrimination complaints groundless.’(Crenshaw, 1989). Although this quote speaks of the black female body experience in law specifically, which is my personal story, I can draw points and information that can be relatable to my gender/sex. As a female, I
In the opening chapter of their book, Patricia Hill Collins and Sirma Bilge examine the meaning of intersectionality as they apply it to three distinct examples: the FIFA World Cup, a World Congress of Sociology, and the Brazilian festival of Latinidades. Intersectionality, as defined by the authors, refers to “a way of understanding and analyzing the complexity in the world, in people, and in human experiences.” Intersectionality is often used as an analytic tool to better understand the social and political needs of those whose lives are influenced by multiple intersecting identities (i.e. Black feminism is used to call attention to the specific needs of Black women). The idea of structural power is another key component of intersectionality discussed by Hill Collins and Bilge in the chapter. They argue that power is organized in four distinct, interconnected domains (interpersonal, disciplinary, cultural, and structural), and “operates by disciplining people in ways that put people’s lives on paths that makes some options seems viable and others out of reach.” This idea is outlined in the World Cup example as the authors discuss the “pay to play” ideology in soccer that disadvantages those with lower socioeconomic status. At the conclusion of their chapter, Hill Collins and Bilge outline six core ideas that tend to come up when using intersectionality as an analytic
Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey (2013) defined internalized oppression as “attitudes and behavior of some oppressed people that reflect the negative, harmful, stereotypical beliefs of the dominant group directed at them” (p. G-3). This was demonstrated in the article by Crenshaw discussing that among others, some women of color have accepted the belief that girls being ignored when it comes to race focused programs is “justified and necessary” (Crenshaw, 2013, p. 28). This illustration of internalized oppression in the article was short yet very powerful. It showed that although women and girls (especially of color) are already deeply oppressed, some of them begin accept the oppression of being ignored and excluded from the numerous programs that are supposed to be for all at-risk youth but specifically focus on
The identities have tended to be divided into some different categories, such as gender, race, and class, and these sources have been judged in the different ways. In other words, the different determinant factors of the individuality have been considered separately, and these components have been regarded as a unrelated simple category. Under these points of view, however, it is hard to recognize the problems of interrelated individual component of the identity. Thus, to solve the disregarding crossover point, the new theory of the “intersectionality” are essential. This essay explores the key definition of the “intersectionality” from the viewpoint of gender studies, and how the concept is connected with the social system and individual identity
In the early years of my life, adapting to the foreign customs of America was my top priority. Although born in America, I constantly moved back and forth from Korea to the US, experiencing nerve-racking, yet thrilling emotions caused by the unfamiliarity of new traditions. Along with these strange traditions, came struggles with accepting my ethnicity. Because of the obvious physical differences due to my race, the first question asked by the students in elementary school was, “Are you from China?” These inquiries were constantly asked by several of American students until middle school which transformed to “You must be good at math” referencing the stereotypical intellect that Asian are perceived to have. Through continuous insult on my Asian heritage, I began to believe and later hate the person I was due to criticism made by teenagers which I started to see true despite all the lies that was actively told. This racial discrimination was a reoccurring pattern that
If an Asian American is successful and smart, then it must be true about the whole Asian race. It creates false assumptions that every Asian is the same, which can discriminate and stereotype all Asian Americans who don’t belong in the category. This creates an unfair and unjust disadvantage and treatment towards Asian Americans who are targeted as one, in other words, it’s a problem that their needs and aids are ignored by society. According to the Pew Research Center data, recent trends show that Asian Americans are the “the highest-income, best-educated and fastest-growing racial group in the United States” ("The Rise of.”), who overtook Hispanics in the 2010 Census.... ...
The way humans look externally and feel internally has been a barrier and the kernel to many of America’s social conflicts. Audre Lorde’s essay, “Eye to Eye: Black Women, Hatred, and Anger,” attempts to answer why Black women feel contempt among one another. It resonates that Black women, in lieu of their hatred for each other, should replace it by bonding together because they share the same experiences of being women and Black. In the essay titled, “Colorblind Intersectionality,” penned by, Devon W. Carbado seeks to expand the definition of “intersectionality,” which is a theory Professor Crenshaw initially introduced as a, “Drawing explicitly on Black feminist criticism,” (Carbado 811). Carbado is able to provide other forms of intersections by
Debate on whether Asians are subjected to workplace discrimination based on their race has been raging on for years. The research findings on this issue have been varied. For instance, Cabezas and Kawaguchi (1988) showed that fore...
Currently, in our society we can see an increase in inequality and discrimination towards different people. Unfortunately, the American ideology does not take into account the diversity that exists in the country. The lack of an educational perspective that includes all people regardless of gender, race, sex, religion and social class is vitally important to take into account not just those people who meet the “normal” perspectives imposed by society, but also take in consideration those who don’t necessarily meet the social expectations. It could be said that intersectionality is a tool which helps us to analyze and defend multiple discriminations and above all to understand how different factors influence the rights and opportunities that
For the Final Portfolio Essay Revision, I decided to revise Module Two Essay, Intersectionality, in part because it is the one I received the lower grade and didn't fully understand what was ask of me. This time I understood the assignment a little bit better it was still confusing at time but I manage to fully embed myself in the process of the revision.
Working in an oppressed work environment is challenging not only subjective to oppression by the dominant white workers but witnessed co-workers being victimized. These incidents happened in a health care environment. The staff complement consists of twelve nurses including one Aboriginal native nurse, one black nurse myself, and one male French Canadian nurse. A white female manager completes the complement. The manager who has worked for this heath care for twenty years brought the facility ways how to manage staff and coordinate the facility. One of my manager’s mandates is to have a diverse staff complement.
Intersectionality is a term used to describe a situation whereby an individual has multiple identities and as result, the person feels that he or she doesn’t belong to one community or another. Because of the many conflicts in an individual’s identities, he or she could be a victim of multiple threats of discrimination (Williams, 2017). The discrimination could be a result of race, gender, age, health and ethnicity among others. To give an example, a black transgender woman could be discriminated in the workplace because of being black and also because she is transgender. From an intersectionality perspective, the woman faces multiple threats of discrimination because of the overlapping identities of gender and race and therefore the transwoman faces a bigger struggle (Barber, 2017). Transwomen of color will most likely encounter prejudices in the form of homophobia, racism or sexism in many dimensions of their life. The perspective of intersectionality is not only applicable to women but it can also be applied to males. For example, a gay Latino man could be discriminated based on race because he is an immigrant into
If I were to say “intersectionality”, a majority of people I know, besides the ones outside of this geography course, would have no idea what I meant. As a matter of fact, I myself had never heard of intersectionality before the guest lecture. So, what exactly is intersectionality, why is it important, how does it affect identity, and how does it fit into the context of a geography class? I will be answering all these questions in my essay.
Intersectionality was one of the greatest concepts this course shed light on, intersectionality is can be broadly defined as the coming together of various social groups to work together to fight against forms of oppression. In the conceptual frameworks portion of the book Readings for Diversity and Social Justice, they talk about the importance of privileged identities and disadvantaged identities coming together to work towards solving a particular issue. While before taking this course I was somewhat aware of the various forms of oppression, I never gave much thought to how I could help combat forms of oppression that I did not necessarily experience with my own identity.
Taking English classes, and becoming a certified elementary teacher encouraged me to become an active member of the community. At that time, I began experiencing intense emotions and feelings as I was in direct contact with several individuals and families who had values and beliefs very diverse to the ones that I personally had. However, I was strongly trying to adapt to the core values of the American society, putting aside what have always been my own personal principle and beliefs. I refused to speak Spanish or Italian once I was able to speak fluent English, and rejected any type of interpersonal relationship with any other cultural group other than Americans. I felt embarrassed of my own family as they only spoke their native language. To one point in life, I saw myself forgetting the importance that maintaining my family together had to me, which caused a great deal of inconformity and dissatisfaction within myself. I became aware of how people from other cultures or countries might have felt as they tried to adapt to the American culture, putting aside their own beliefs and values.