Everyday intersectionality

We all have a lot to learn about intersectional discrimination and how to combat it in practice. We are fortunate today to have the opportunity to learn a bit more, not only about race and gender, but about disability, age and religion and the way that these aspects of identity intersect with racism.

This is a constant challenge. Most people are aware of the need for inclusion of different perspectives in human rights work. But the tendency is still to "add on" the perspectives of others rather than making them central. We assume a white perspective when we only have a footnote about blackness. And we assume that the male perspective is the central one when we add only a final chapter about women. As long as that is the way we work, marginalized people will remain marginal.

I challenge people to adopt a gender-based approach to the analysis of racism. And, of course, to do that while also taking account of the other aspects of identity that intersect to create us as complex beings.

If that sounds like juggling a few too many balls, well, no-one said that acknowledging intersectionality was easy. But it is the next step we need to make in genuinely addressing the lived experience (the every day experience) of discrimination.