Being a crime and justice major this week was not the first time I have read and discussed the topic of intersectionality. Intersectionality can be seen as a large web that brings together the numerous identities we all have as human beings. Some of these identities include race, class, gender, sexual orientation, etc. Intersectionality allows us to see the connections made between these different identities. It shows how these identities relate to domination, oppression and privilege. “Intersectionality is a concept that helps us think about the ways that a person might be oppressed in one category and be privileged in another.” Some may be oppressed in more than one category, or privileged in more than one category. In this week’s readings we see the way intersectionality affects many different women in different ways as well as why intersectionality is important and necessary. Cacilida Cain talks about how ecofeminism lacks the views of colored women. “There is no movement that truly addresses the intersectional oppression black women face from sexism and environmental racism.(Cain)” It is important that there is more recognition for black women regarding intersectionality because they are as Cain mentions they are, “at the front lines of environmental degradation.“ These women are being oppressed in multiple categories. Black women are facing major risks, just as nature is due to environmental degradation. An example given of a major risk to nature is climate change, which will continue to affect these women as it gets worse. “Climate change will affect black women the most as it exacerbates existing systems of oppression. This emphasizes the need for an intersectional, black feminist, environmental movement that centers black womens standpoints to combat these threats. (Cain)”
It is important to realize that life on Earth is all interconnected. Something ecofeminism does is to make connections between our identities and the domination of them. It is important that we have diversity on this Earth; it is what gives us a healthy ecosystem. “A healthy, balanced ecosystem, including human and nonhuman inhabitants, must maintain diversity.” Even deep down in the sea, where humans do not reside, there is still a huge amount of diversity. All the aspects on both land and sea are connected to make the world go round efficiently. Rachel Carson talks about the ecology that makes up the ocean and all the creatures that dominate the waters. Carson asks who has known the ocean? In order regards to the ocean’s complexity she says, “To sense this world of waters known to the creatures of the sea we must shed our human perceptions of length and breadth and time and place, and enter vicariously into the universe of all-pervading water.(Carson)” She talks of all the creatures that rely on each other to survive. Just as we who live on land rely on each other as well. Yet we also rely on the oceans which I believe many people fail to realize. After all the Earth is made up of 71% water. I thought this article was quite interesting considering we are so used to reading about human beings more often than nonhuman beings. Just as us humans, these creatures also have their own web of intersectionality, that even connects us to them.
Now back to the intersectionality of us. Beverly Tatum talks about the complexity of identity. Our identities are often largely influenced by the world around us. The people we surround ourselves with, the place we grew up, the community we live in all can be aspects that shape our identities. Tatum mentioned some interesting things she noticed when asking her students to complete the sentence, “ I am *blank* “Students of color usually mention their racial or ethnic group, White students rarely mentioned being white. Women usually mention being female, while men don’t usually mention their maleness. (Tatum)” This shows that identities who are often dominated by the other are the ones that were mentioned. Tatum seems to provide an explanation for this, that those who are in a “dominated” or privileged group do not usually mention that category of their identity because it is so taken for granted. Tatum makes a very good point that with every identity a person is defined by there is a form of oppression that goes along with it. “In each case, there is a group considered dominant and a group considered subordinate or targeted. Most of us will find that we are both dominant and targeted at the same time. (Tatum)” These groups are what makes up intersectionality. Dealing with the oppressions we face in regarding our identities is a physically and mentally exhausting thing. Yet as Audrey Lorde says from Tatums reading, “There is no hierarchy of oppressions.” Tatum goes on to say “the threat of violence runs through all of the isms. There is a need to acknowledge each other’s pain, even as we attend to our on.(Tatum)”
I am also a CJS major and feel very similarly to you on the importance of intersectionality when considering ecofeminism. Much of the material this week layed over the foundational work that comes commonly gets applied to CJS classes. For example, in History is A Weapon: A Question of Class, by Dorothy Allison, she states“The horror of class stratification, racism, and prejudice is that some people begin to believe that the security of their families and communities depends on the oppression of others, that for some to have good lives there must be others whose lives are truncated and brutal.” We can relate these ideas, along with ecofeminism, to criminal justice. We talk about the exploitation of labor and poor communities in CJS, but that can directly be applied to an intersectional feminist lens. When we think about concepts like Redlining, a type of land control that villanizes people of color and directly benefits white people, we can see each of these ideas being used. Ecofeminism would take issue with the land control, CJS would take issue with the unjust discrimination, and intersectionality would tie those issues together. If capitalism wasn’t exploiting people of color for profit, then there wouldn’t be a land dispute, and this is the web that we’re talking about in this week’s blog posts.
Hey Allie, really great post this week! you did a great job incorporating a lot of important aspects of the readings this week in a very interesting way. And I absolutely agree with you Black women are at major risk on a daily bases and whether in impoverished countries or industrialized ones like the United States the environment place a big role. According to data collected form 2011-2013 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “around 7.6 percent of black women have heart disease compared to 5.8 percent of white women … and while white women’s diabetes diagnosis rate is 5.4 per 100, the number is 9.9 per 100 for black women” (Barnes). Unfortunately, these health complications are often associated with negative health conditions. Within her Ted talk “Greening the Ghetto” Majora Carter addresses the harmful conditions most low-income communities of color are exposed to in the South Bronx’s. Carter claims as a black person living in America she is two times more likely to live in an area which contains more air pollution than a white person. Sadly, these conditions do not encourage individuals living in this community to go on walks or play outside with their children leading to high risks of obesity, heart disease, and asthma. Therefore, its important to pay attention to not only the oppression we face in some categories, but also the privileges we have in order to help one another. I hope you’re staying safe Allie and great post.
Also sorry forgot to include my sources;
https://www.self.com/story/black-women-health-conditions
https://medium.com/black-feminist-thought-2016/the-necessity-of-black-women-s-standpoint-and-intersectionality-in-environmental-movements-fc52d4277616
Allie,
thank you for your blog post. I wanted to point out how effectively you pointed out the importance of diversity and I was hoping to add to the argument.
I am not a BIO major but in my BIO classes, I learned about biodiversity quite a bit. One thing my professor always said: “Biodiversity is GOOD.” There was never a situation where biodiversity negatively impacted the natural ecosystem. Diversity balances us, it also gives us the best chance of survival. When referring to natural selection or survival of the fittest, we must consider biodiversity for several reasons: if a virus swept the Earth and we all had the same immune systems, we would be wiped out, if Black hair was linked to cancer and we all had black hair, we would be wiped out, if world leaders decided to kill every man to end the rule of the patriarchy, we would all eventually cease to exist. These are extreme hypothetical cases, but my point is that diversity only works to serve us. In that same sense. our diverse identities, experiences, levels of oppression, and access to power, is a tool we must learn to exercise so it can best serve us as well.
Hey Allie, I really liked reading your post! Intersectionality is always interesting to read about, and I think you fully grasped what was being explored. The ideas of intersectionality and ecology intertwining with one another was certainly a surprise to me when I first started reading the article, but then again most things in this class have surprised me and made me think, and this entire course is all about intertwining social issues with the environment. The topic of diversity is oh so important as well. From person to person everyone is going to have a different experience from one another and a different way of seeing things. This all depends on their socio-economic status, their race, their up bringing, their gender, and many many more factors. It is not all black and white. From an ecofeminist perspective, this is crucial as their individual environment a person grew up in will have much to say about their values and way of life. It’s important to embrace the differences that we all have, otherwise we will have a very narrow-minded idea of how the world really works, or in this case, how deeply interwoven we are with the environment around us. I will say that I am interested in hearing about how intersectionality came up while you were learning about crime and justice. That’s something I’ll have to further look into myself. Good work!