The urgency of intersectionality
-
0:01 - 0:03I'd like to try something new.
-
0:03 - 0:05Those of you who are able,
-
0:05 - 0:06please stand up.
-
0:08 - 0:12OK, so I'm going to name some names.
-
0:12 - 0:14When you hear a name
that you don't recognize, -
0:14 - 0:16you can't tell me anything about them,
-
0:16 - 0:18I'd like you to take a seat
-
0:18 - 0:19and stay seated.
-
0:20 - 0:24The last person standing,
we're going to see what they know. OK? -
0:24 - 0:25(Laughter)
-
0:25 - 0:27All right.
-
0:27 - 0:28Eric Garner.
-
0:30 - 0:32Mike Brown.
-
0:35 - 0:37Tamir Rice.
-
0:40 - 0:41Freddie Gray.
-
0:44 - 0:46So those of you who are still standing,
-
0:46 - 0:48I'd like you to turn around
and take a look. -
0:48 - 0:52I'd say half to most of the people
are still standing. -
0:53 - 0:54So let's continue.
-
0:56 - 0:57Michelle Cusseaux.
-
1:04 - 1:06Tanisha Anderson.
-
1:10 - 1:12Aura Rosser.
-
1:16 - 1:17Meagan Hockaday.
-
1:19 - 1:20So if we look around again,
-
1:20 - 1:23there are about four people
still standing, -
1:23 - 1:26and actually I'm not going
to put you on the spot. -
1:26 - 1:30I just say that to encourage transparency,
so you can be seated. -
1:30 - 1:31(Laughter)
-
1:33 - 1:36So those of you who recognized
the first group of names know -
1:36 - 1:40that these were African-Americans
who have been killed by the police -
1:40 - 1:42over the last two and a half years.
-
1:43 - 1:44What you may not know
-
1:44 - 1:50is that the other list
is also African-Americans -
1:50 - 1:55who have been killed
within the last two years. -
1:56 - 2:00Only one thing distinguishes
the names that you know -
2:00 - 2:01from the names that you don't know:
-
2:02 - 2:04gender.
-
2:05 - 2:11So let me first let you know
that there's nothing at all distinct -
2:11 - 2:12about this audience
-
2:12 - 2:16that explains the pattern of recognition
that we've just seen. -
2:16 - 2:21I've done this exercise
dozens of times around the country. -
2:21 - 2:23I've done it to women's
rights organizations. -
2:23 - 2:25I've done it with civil rights groups.
-
2:25 - 2:28I've done it with professors.
I've done it with students. -
2:28 - 2:33I've done it with psychologists.
I've done it with sociologists. -
2:33 - 2:36I've done it even with
progressive members of Congress. -
2:36 - 2:41And everywhere, the awareness
of the level of police violence -
2:41 - 2:42that black women experience
-
2:43 - 2:45is exceedingly low.
-
2:46 - 2:49Now, it is surprising, isn't it,
that this would be the case. -
2:49 - 2:51I mean, there are two issues
involved here. -
2:51 - 2:54There's police violence
against African-Americans, -
2:54 - 2:56and there's violence against women,
-
2:56 - 2:59two issues that have been
talked about a lot lately. -
3:00 - 3:06But when we think about
who is implicated by these problems, -
3:06 - 3:10when we think about
who is victimized by these problems, -
3:10 - 3:13the names of these black women
never come to mind. -
3:14 - 3:16Now, communications experts tell us
-
3:16 - 3:21that when facts do not fit
with the available frames, -
3:21 - 3:25people have a difficult time
incorporating new facts -
3:25 - 3:28into their way of thinking
about a problem. -
3:29 - 3:32These women's names
have slipped through our consciousness -
3:32 - 3:36because there are no frames
for us to see them, -
3:36 - 3:38no frames for us to remember them,
-
3:38 - 3:40no frames for us to hold them.
-
3:41 - 3:43As a consequence,
-
3:44 - 3:45reporters don't lead with them,
-
3:46 - 3:49policymakers don't think about them,
-
3:49 - 3:55and politicians aren't encouraged
or demanded that they speak to them. -
3:56 - 3:57Now, you might ask,
-
3:57 - 3:59why does a frame matter?
-
3:59 - 4:01I mean, after all,
-
4:01 - 4:06an issue that affects black people
and an issue that affects women, -
4:06 - 4:10wouldn't that necessarily include
black people who are women -
4:10 - 4:13and women who are black people?
-
4:14 - 4:19Well, the simple answer is that this is
a trickle-down approach to social justice, -
4:19 - 4:22and many times it just doesn't work.
-
4:22 - 4:25Without frames that allow us to see
-
4:25 - 4:30how social problems impact
all the members of a targeted group, -
4:30 - 4:33many will fall through the cracks
of our movements, -
4:33 - 4:36left to suffer in virtual isolation.
-
4:37 - 4:41But it doesn't have to be this way.
-
4:42 - 4:47Many years ago, I began to use
the term "intersectionality" -
4:47 - 4:51to deal with the fact
that many of our social justice problems -
4:51 - 4:53like racism and sexism
-
4:53 - 4:55are often overlapping,
-
4:56 - 5:00creating multiple levels
of social injustice. -
5:01 - 5:06Now, the experience
that gave rise to intersectionality -
5:06 - 5:11was my chance encounter
with a woman named Emma DeGraffenreid. -
5:12 - 5:16Emma DeGraffenreid
was an African-American woman, -
5:16 - 5:19a working wife and a mother.
-
5:19 - 5:24I actually read about Emma's story
from the pages of a legal opinion -
5:24 - 5:28written by a judge
who had dismissed Emma's claim -
5:28 - 5:30of race and gender discrimination
-
5:31 - 5:35against a local car manufacturing plant.
-
5:35 - 5:39Emma, like so many African-American women,
-
5:39 - 5:43sought better employment
for her family and for others. -
5:43 - 5:47She wanted to create a better life
for her children and for her family. -
5:47 - 5:50But she applied for a job,
-
5:50 - 5:51and she was not hired,
-
5:51 - 5:55and she believed that she was not hired
because she was a black woman. -
5:56 - 6:00Now, the judge in question
dismissed Emma's suit, -
6:00 - 6:03and the argument
for dismissing the suit was -
6:03 - 6:07that the employer
did hire African-Americans -
6:07 - 6:10and the employer hired women.
-
6:11 - 6:15The real problem, though, that the judge
was not willing to acknowledge -
6:15 - 6:19was what Emma was actually trying to say,
-
6:19 - 6:22that the African-Americans
that were hired, -
6:22 - 6:26usually for industrial jobs,
maintenance jobs, were all men. -
6:27 - 6:29And the women that were hired,
-
6:29 - 6:33usually for secretarial
or front-office work, -
6:33 - 6:34were all white.
-
6:35 - 6:39Only if the court was able to see
how these policies came together -
6:39 - 6:43would he be able to see
the double discrimination -
6:43 - 6:46that Emma DeGraffenreid was facing.
-
6:47 - 6:52But the court refused to allow Emma
to put two causes of action together -
6:52 - 6:54to tell her story
-
6:54 - 6:58because he believed that,
by allowing her to do that, -
6:58 - 7:02she would be able
to have preferential treatment. -
7:02 - 7:07She would have an advantage
by having two swings at the bat, -
7:07 - 7:12when African-American men and white women
only had one swing at the bat. -
7:12 - 7:17But of course, neither
African-American men or white women -
7:17 - 7:22needed to combine a race
and gender discrimination claim -
7:22 - 7:26to tell the story of the discrimination
they were experiencing. -
7:27 - 7:30Why wasn't the real unfairness
-
7:31 - 7:35law's refusal to protect
African-American women -
7:35 - 7:39simply because their experiences
weren't exactly the same -
7:39 - 7:43as white women and African-American men?
-
7:43 - 7:49Rather than broadening the frame
to include African-American women, -
7:49 - 7:53the court simply tossed their case
completely out of court. -
7:54 - 7:58Now, as a student
of antidiscrimination law, -
7:58 - 8:00as a feminist,
-
8:00 - 8:02as an antiracist,
-
8:02 - 8:05I was struck by this case.
-
8:05 - 8:10It felt to me like injustice squared.
-
8:10 - 8:12So first of all,
-
8:12 - 8:15black women weren't allowed
to work at the plant. -
8:16 - 8:20Second of all, the court
doubled down on this exclusion -
8:20 - 8:23by making it legally inconsequential.
-
8:23 - 8:27And to boot, there was
no name for this problem. -
8:28 - 8:31And we all know that,
where there's no name for a problem, -
8:31 - 8:32you can't see a problem,
-
8:32 - 8:37and when you can't see a problem,
you pretty much can't solve it. -
8:38 - 8:41Many years later, I had come to recognize
-
8:41 - 8:46that the problem that Emma was facing
was a framing problem. -
8:47 - 8:49The frame that the court was using
-
8:49 - 8:54to see gender discrimination
or to see race discrimination -
8:54 - 8:57was partial, and it was distorting.
-
8:58 - 9:01For me, the challenge that I faced was
-
9:01 - 9:06trying to figure out whether
there was an alternative narrative, -
9:06 - 9:10a prism that would allow us
to see Emma's dilemma, -
9:10 - 9:16a prism that would allow us
to rescue her from the cracks in the law, -
9:16 - 9:20that would allow judges to see her story.
-
9:21 - 9:23So it occurred to me,
-
9:23 - 9:28maybe a simple analogy to an intersection
-
9:28 - 9:32might allow judges
to better see Emma's dilemma. -
9:33 - 9:38So if we think about this intersection,
the roads to the intersection would be -
9:38 - 9:44the way that the workforce
was structured by race and by gender. -
9:44 - 9:49And then the traffic in those roads
would be the hiring policies -
9:49 - 9:53and the other practices
that ran through those roads. -
9:53 - 9:58Now, because Emma
was both black and female, -
9:58 - 10:03she was positioned precisely
where those roads overlapped, -
10:04 - 10:08experiencing the simultaneous impact
-
10:08 - 10:12of the company's gender and race traffic.
-
10:13 - 10:19The law -- the law is
like that ambulance that shows up -
10:19 - 10:23and is ready to treat Emma
only if it can be shown -
10:23 - 10:27that she was harmed
on the race road or on the gender road -
10:27 - 10:31but not where those roads intersected.
-
10:32 - 10:37So what do you call
being impacted by multiple forces -
10:37 - 10:41and then abandoned to fend for yourself?
-
10:42 - 10:44Intersectionality seemed to do it for me.
-
10:46 - 10:51I would go on to learn
that African-American women, -
10:51 - 10:53like other women of color,
-
10:53 - 10:57like other socially marginalized people
all over the world, -
10:57 - 11:01were facing all kinds
of dilemmas and challenges -
11:01 - 11:04as a consequence of intersectionality,
-
11:04 - 11:08intersections of race and gender,
-
11:08 - 11:13of heterosexism, transphobia,
xenophobia, ableism, -
11:13 - 11:17all of these social dynamics come together
-
11:17 - 11:22and create challenges
that are sometimes quite unique. -
11:23 - 11:25But in the same way
-
11:25 - 11:26that intersectionality
-
11:27 - 11:32raised our awareness to the way
that black women live their lives, -
11:33 - 11:37it also exposes the tragic circumstances
-
11:37 - 11:41under which African-American women die.
-
11:42 - 11:45Police violence against black women
-
11:46 - 11:47is very real.
-
11:48 - 11:51The level of violence
that black women face -
11:51 - 11:53is such that it's not surprising
-
11:54 - 11:58that some of them do not survive
their encounters with police. -
11:59 - 12:03Black girls as young as seven,
-
12:03 - 12:06great grandmothers as old as 95
-
12:08 - 12:09have been killed by the police.
-
12:10 - 12:12They've been killed in their living rooms,
-
12:13 - 12:14in their bedrooms.
-
12:15 - 12:17They've been killed in their cars.
-
12:18 - 12:20They've been killed on the street.
-
12:20 - 12:23They've been killed
in front of their parents -
12:23 - 12:25and they've been killed
in front of their children. -
12:26 - 12:28They have been shot to death.
-
12:29 - 12:31They have been stomped to death.
-
12:32 - 12:34They have been suffocated to death.
-
12:35 - 12:37They have been manhandled to death.
-
12:38 - 12:40They have been tasered to death.
-
12:41 - 12:44They've been killed
when they've called for help. -
12:46 - 12:49They've been killed when they were alone,
-
12:49 - 12:52and they've been killed
when they were with others. -
12:53 - 12:56They've been killed shopping while black,
-
12:57 - 12:58driving while black,
-
12:59 - 13:03having a mental disability while black,
-
13:03 - 13:06having a domestic disturbance while black.
-
13:07 - 13:11They've even been killed
being homeless while black. -
13:12 - 13:15They've been killed
talking on the cell phone, -
13:15 - 13:17laughing with friends,
-
13:17 - 13:20sitting in a car reported as stolen
-
13:20 - 13:24and making a U-turn
in front of the White House -
13:24 - 13:27with an infant strapped
in the backseat of the car. -
13:28 - 13:30Why don't we know these stories?
-
13:33 - 13:36Why is it that their lost lives
-
13:36 - 13:41don't generate the same amount
of media attention and communal outcry -
13:41 - 13:44as the lost lives
of their fallen brothers? -
13:46 - 13:48It's time for a change.
-
13:51 - 13:52So what can we do?
-
13:55 - 14:00In 2014, the African-American
Policy Forum began to demand -
14:00 - 14:02that we "say her name"
-
14:04 - 14:07at rallies, at protests,
-
14:08 - 14:11at conferences, at meetings,
-
14:11 - 14:13anywhere and everywhere
-
14:13 - 14:17that state violence against black bodies
is being discussed. -
14:19 - 14:21But saying her name is not enough.
-
14:21 - 14:24We have to be willing to do more.
-
14:24 - 14:27We have to be willing to bear witness,
-
14:27 - 14:31to bear witness
to the often painful realities -
14:31 - 14:34that we would just rather not confront,
-
14:34 - 14:40the everyday violence and humiliation
that many black women have had to face, -
14:40 - 14:43black women across color,
-
14:43 - 14:45age, gender expression,
-
14:45 - 14:47sexuality and ability.
-
14:49 - 14:53So we have the opportunity right now --
-
14:53 - 14:57bearing in mind that some of the images
that I'm about to share with you -
14:57 - 14:59may be triggering for some --
-
15:00 - 15:05to collectively bear witness
to some of this violence. -
15:06 - 15:10We're going to hear the voice
of the phenomenal Abby Dobson. -
15:11 - 15:14And as we sit with these women,
-
15:15 - 15:20some who have experienced violence
and some who have not survived them, -
15:21 - 15:23we have an opportunity
-
15:23 - 15:27to reverse what happened
at the beginning of this talk, -
15:27 - 15:29when we could not stand for these women
-
15:29 - 15:33because we did not know their names.
-
15:34 - 15:37So at the end of this clip,
there's going to be a roll call. -
15:39 - 15:41Several black women's names will come up.
-
15:43 - 15:48I'd like those of you who are able
to join us in saying these names -
15:48 - 15:50as loud as you can,
-
15:50 - 15:53randomly, disorderly.
-
15:53 - 15:56Let's create a cacophony of sound
-
15:57 - 15:59to represent our intention
-
15:59 - 16:02to hold these women up,
-
16:02 - 16:04to sit with them,
-
16:04 - 16:06to bear witness to them,
-
16:07 - 16:09to bring them into the light.
-
16:16 - 16:23(Singing) Abby Dobson: Say,
-
16:23 - 16:29say her name.
-
16:31 - 16:37Say,
-
16:38 - 16:42say her name.
-
16:42 - 16:43(Audience) Shelly!
-
16:45 - 16:46(Audience) Kayla!
-
16:46 - 16:52AD: Oh,
-
16:54 - 17:00say her name.
-
17:00 - 17:02(Audience shouting names)
-
17:02 - 17:09Say, say,
-
17:10 - 17:16say her name.
-
17:17 - 17:23Say her name.
-
17:23 - 17:26For all the names
-
17:26 - 17:31I'll never know,
-
17:33 - 17:36say her name.
-
17:36 - 17:39KC: Aiyanna Stanley Jones,
Janisha Fonville, -
17:39 - 17:41Kathryn Johnston, Kayla Moore,
-
17:41 - 17:44Michelle Cusseaux, Rekia Boyd,
-
17:44 - 17:48Shelly Frey, Tarika, Yvette Smith.
-
17:49 - 17:56AD: Say her name.
-
17:59 - 18:02KC: So I said at the beginning,
-
18:02 - 18:05if we can't see a problem,
-
18:06 - 18:07we can't fix a problem.
-
18:09 - 18:12Together, we've come together
to bear witness -
18:12 - 18:14to these women's lost lives.
-
18:15 - 18:18But the time now is to move
-
18:18 - 18:20from mourning and grief
-
18:20 - 18:23to action and transformation.
-
18:24 - 18:26This is something that we can do.
-
18:27 - 18:29It's up to us.
-
18:31 - 18:33Thank you for joining us.
-
18:33 - 18:34Thank you.
-
18:34 - 18:36(Applause)
- Title:
- The urgency of intersectionality
- Speaker:
- Kimberlé Crenshaw
- Description:
-
Kimberlé Crenshaw speaks at TEDWomen 2016
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 18:49
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for The urgency of intersectionality | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for The urgency of intersectionality | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for The urgency of intersectionality | ||
Brian Greene approved English subtitles for The urgency of intersectionality | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for The urgency of intersectionality | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for The urgency of intersectionality | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for The urgency of intersectionality | ||
Joanna Pietrulewicz accepted English subtitles for The urgency of intersectionality |