Order Instructions
Select and analyze key moments in 2-3 texts when the meaning, purpose, or goals of black feminism and/or intersectionality were made strikingly clear. Be sure to use quotes and examples to drive home your idea.
Audre Lorde’s “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference” p. 766.
Kimberle Cremshaw: TED Talk: “The Urgency of Intersectionality.” https://www.ted.com/talks/kimberle_crenshaw_the_urgency_of_intersectionality?language=enLinks to an external site.
Audre Lorde’s poetry: Lorde’s poems from The Black Unicorn p. 773.
Roxane Gay: “My Body is a Cage of My Own Making.” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jul/01/roxane-gay-my-body-is-a-cage-of-my-own-makingLinks to an external site.
Roxane Gay’s TED talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/roxane_gay_confessions_of_a_bad_feminist?language=enLinks to an external site.
Intersectionality accounts for the varied ways that individuals experience systematic oppression (as a result of their marginalized race, gender, sexual orientation, class, ability-level, religious affiliation, etc) but also how they can simultaneously be privileged on account of their identity. For instance, a working-class white man can be structurally disadvantaged and oppressed on the basis of his socioeconomic position, but be privileged by virtue of his race. Likewise, an educated black female professional can be privileged socioeconomically, but experiences disadvantages on the basis of her gender and race.
As a black lesbian woman, Audre Lorde embodied how many people can occupy multiple axis of oppression. But. she was an inspiring figure because she was outspoken about the many ways that women could engage in transformative self care and reclaim power in a society that privileged masculinity, heterosexuality, and whiteness. In her famous essay, “The Uses of the Erotic,” Lorde calls women to think about women’s sexuality not just in terms of victimization, but in terms of subversive power that challenged the status quo:
“THERE ARE MANY kinds of power, used and unused, acknowledged or otherwise. The
erotic is a resource within each of us that lies in a deeply female and spiritual plane, firmly rooted
in the power of our unexpressed or unrecognized feeling. In order to perpetuate itself, every
oppression must corrupt or distort those various sources of power within the culture of the
oppressed that can provide energy for change. For women, this has meant a suppression of the
erotic as a considered source of power and information within our lives.”
Lorde’s poetry from her book Black Unicorn (1978) uses the motif of the black unicorn to embody the spiritual power of black women, a power she implies to be magical, but deeply suppressed and “mistaken” by a “cold country.” Her poetry suggests that this power to be untapped, but on the horizon.
The Black Unicorn by Audre Lorde
SAMPLE ANSWER
In her TED talk “The Urgency of Intersectionality,” Kimberlé Crenshaw explains the importance of recognizing the ways in which different forms of oppression intersect and compound each other, particularly for black women who often face both racism and sexism. She states, “The intersectional experience is greater than the sum of racism and sexism,” emphasizing that intersectionality is not just about adding up different forms of oppression, but rather recognizing how they interact and create unique experiences of marginalization.
Similarly, in her essay “My Body is a Cage of My Own Making,” Roxane Gay writes about her experiences as a fat woman and how her body is simultaneously both stigmatized and eroticized in society. She explains, “I am never just a fat girl. I am a fat girl with a reputation. I am a fat girl with feelings. I am a fat girl with a history. Fat is not a simple adjective. It is not an insult. It is a descriptor, a fact, a thing to be reckoned with.” Gay’s writing highlights the ways in which societal attitudes towards body size intersect with gender and race to create a complex and often painful experience.
Overall, the works of Lorde, Crenshaw, and Gay all emphasize the importance of recognizing the ways in which different forms of oppression intersect and compound each other. They also call for a more nuanced understanding of power and privilege, recognizing that individuals can be both oppressed and privileged depending on the different aspects of their identity. Through their writing and speaking, these black feminists have made it strikingly clear that intersectionality is not just an academic concept, but a lived reality that affects the daily experiences of individuals.
Reference:
Crenshaw, K. (2016, September). The Urgency of Intersectionality. TED Talk. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/kimberle_crenshaw_the_urgency_of_intersectionality?language=en
Gay, R. (2017, July 1). My Body is a Cage of My Own Making. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jul/01/roxane-gay-my-body-is-a-cage-of-my-own-making
Lorde, A. (1984). Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference. In Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (pp. 114-123). Crossing Press.
Lorde, A. (1978). The Black Unicorn. W. W. Norton & Company.