The religion of intersectionality
by Andrew Doyle
One of the most baffling features of the culture wars is the way in which intersectionality, a relatively obscure branch of feminism, has infiltrated the mainstream. It has influenced the policies of employers, educators and politicians, in spite of the fact that few have taken the trouble to understand its implications.
“Most religious groups claim that salvation can only be achieved if we follow their particular god.” / Hegebeintum, Friesland – foto Aart G. Broek
Like most aspects of the social-justice movement, it is taken on faith and implemented without question. For the new religionists, debate is a form of heresy.
The term ‘intersectionality’ was coined by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw in an article published in 1989 which focused on three discrimination cases. The first of these was a 1976 lawsuit, Degraffenreid v General Motors, in which five black women alleged that they had not been hired because of their race and gender. The court found that the company’s record of employing black men and white women was evidence that it was neither racist nor sexist. Black women, in other words, were left in limbo. As Crenshaw put it in a recent TED talk, ‘Without frames that allow us to see how social problems impact all the members of a targeted group, many will fall through the cracks of our movement’.
Please, read on here: Spiked, May 1, 2019.
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