RESPOND TO PEER DISCUSSION RESPONSE BELOW 

Your responses to your classmates should be at least 100 words each. When responding to classmate, make sure to highlight BOTH areas where you agree and differ in your opinions.  Don’t forget to also use in-text citations and references in giving credit to the authors. 

 Intersectionality is a framework for understanding that different categories or demographics of people’s identities can intersect to create a life for them where they face either higher or lower levels of discrimination/privilege. Kimberle Crenshaw was the originator of such an idea. Crenshaw recognized the fact that many times racism and sexism went hand in hand, especially in cases dealing with women of color. There is a type of discrimination that includes a combination of two demographics, sexism, and racism: “racialized sexism” and “sexualized racism” (Washington, 2023). An example of this sort of intersection could be seen in the case of Degraffenreid v. General Motors. A group of black women filed a suit that General Motors was discriminating against black women in the workplace by not hiring them. The courts found General Motors not guilty of such discrimination because of the court’s inability to combine sex and race. According to Crenshaw, the court stated that the plaintiffs “should not be allowed to combine statutory remedies to create a new 'super-remedy' which would give them relief beyond what the drafters of the relevant statutes intended.” (Crenshaw, 1989, p. 141).  So, because the court was able to prove that white women and black males were employed at General Motors, no racism or sexism was considered to be occurring at the company. An explanation of The Matrix of Domination theory would have benefited the women in the General Motors case greatly. The term highlights how people (in this case women) can have various attributes that disadvantage them in ways that the woman standing next to them doesn’t have. For instance, in the General Motors case, the race factor of the colored women caused them to be faced with an even greater amount of oppression than just white women working at General Motors faced. While this specific case is from long ago, intersectionality can still be seen today. I practice intersectionality every day as I hold the position of being my sorority’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion chair. My chapter holds equity training workshops so that all members can be aware of their privileges while also expanding their knowledge of the oppressions that some of their sorority sisters may face. As Crenshaw stated in the video produced by The National Association of Independent Schools, “Identity is relationship between people in communities”, Therefore I find it imperative that my chapter can be a safe place for women to talk about these factors that either help or hinder them out in the world (Crenshaw, 2018).

References: 

Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A black feminist