STANDING STILL:INTERSECTIONAL WORK AS SOCIAL JUSTICE

J E S S I C A J E N N R I C H ,D I R E C T O R , W O M E N ’ S C E N T E R

M A R L E N E K O W A L S K I - B R A U NA S S I S T A N T V I C E P R O V O S T F O R S T U D E N T A F F A I R S

G R A N D VA L L E Y S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Expand frameworks for thinking about this work

Articulate an intersectional paradigm

Discuss how to engage in coalition work

Explore risks and benefits

Slow down: Apply what we have learned

FRAMEWORKS FOR OUR TIME TOGETHER

Acknowledge alternative positionalities

Share honestly (what we share here stays here)

Generosity matters

Question or comment – say so!

U.S. colleges historically served economically privileged, White, young men

1960’S and 70’s Shifts in student representation and student activism required

campuses to implement a broad range of initiatives Leads to the creation of Black Cultural Centers, Minority Student

Services,

Women’s Centers Students have largely been the leaders for change

Institutional norms and policies on campus have not changed in wholesale; the academy still reflects the nation’s bigotry and oppression

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Source: Multicultural Student Services on Campus, Edited by Dafina Lazarus Stewart

EXPANDING OUR FRAMEWORKS:IDENTITY, SOCIAL JUSTICE AND INTERSECTIONALITY

Identity

Social Justice

Intersectional

Feminist Conceptualizations of Intersectionality

• Grew out of Black feminist scholarship • Sojourner Truth, “Aint’ I a Woman?”, 1851• Combahee River Collective Statement, 1977• Patricia Hill Collins, 1990• Kimberly Crenshaw, 1994• Gloria Anzaldua, 1999

Feminist Conceptualizations (Cont.) Audre Lorde: “There is No Hierarchy of Oppression”

•“As a Black, lesbian, feminist, socialist, poet, mother of two including a boy and a member of an interracial couple, I usually find myself a part of some group in which the majority defines me as deviant, difficult, inferior, or just plain ‘wrong’”

•“Within the lesbian community I am Black, and within the Black community I am a lesbian. Any attack against Black people is a lesbian and gay issue, because I and thousands of other Black women are a part of the lesbian community. Any attack against lesbians and gays is a Black issue, because thousands of lesbians and gay men are Black. There is no hierarchy of oppression.”

APPLYING INTERSECTIONALITY

Network

• Intertwined communities of action.

• Often determined according to structure and historical factors.

• Will persist long after people leave.

• Good networks have good coalition building.

Coalition

• Often temporary or transient in terms of members.

• Characterized by a group of individuals coming together for a couple of hours at a time or for a common goal(s).

• Coalitions are the building blocks for strong networks.

Alliance

• Collaborative partnership among networks with advanced loyalty expectations.

• This requires a widening of perspectives – of ALL of us!

• Aspire to be this – goal of coalition and networks.

PRACTICE IN AN INTERSECTIONAL PARADIGM

Engage in radical

thinking by rejecting additive

approaches to oppression

that essentialize

identity.

Advocate in a more

complex, system-based

way.

Focus on root causes of problems

rather than on surface level

issues.

What are the benefits/challenges to doing intersectional work....

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