Intersectionality: Global, Racial and Gendered Inequities
Watch, read, and summarize the following videos and informational pages in at least 3-4 sentences. After completing your summaries, review my short note and then answer the following questions below:
First, read the Department of Justice’s Informational pages on
https://www.justice.gov/criminal/criminal-ceos/child-sex-trafficking
https://www.justice.gov/criminal/criminal-ceos/extraterritorial-sexual-exploitation-children
These materials were picked to help you think about how race, class, gender, and age intersect to affect the lives of people in complex and different ways, where their lives must navigate the intersections of various social inequities (racism, classism, agism, sexism, colonialism, globalization). This is what we call, intersectionality, in sociology.
These materials highlights how important the concept intersectionality is to help us see how women/girls of color (who are disproportionally economically disenfranchised within their societies and within colonial systems) navigate intersecting systems of oppression that complexly affect their lives, unlike, for example, White women in the US (remember: as we’ve learned, white women are significantly more likely to experience wealth, class, and racial privileges, despite still experiencing sexism). Intersectionality also helps us to see how women/girls of color, through their voices, their experiences, their culture, music, art, fashion, etc., also usher in systemic change that all women/girls benefit from (all of society, really).
Using intersectionality as a lens answer the following questions:
- Provide an example of intersectionality from one of the videos above–thoroughly unpack in detail what is taking place and most importantly, why. Who benefits from the systems leading to these realities?
- Provide a unique example where intersectionality (remember, use it as a lens to look at society, like a biologist looking through a microscope) helps you to see social problems where they intersect (something outside of class and/or from previous lessons this quarter).
