"Intersectionality is an analytical framework for understanding how a person's various social and political identities combine to create different modes of discrimination and privilege."
Explores how colonialism, racism, and sexism intersect with indigenous identities, cultures, and traditions, shaping experiences of resistance and survival.
Indigenous Peoples: A historical context.
Intersectionality Theory: Intersectionality theory examines how intersecting social categories, such as race, gender, and class, overlap and interact to shape individual experiences and social inequalities.
Colonialism and Its Legacy: Colonialism and Its Legacy explores the ongoing impact and consequences of colonial rule and its systems of power on Indigenous societies and their cultures.
Indigenous Feminism: Indigenous Feminism examines the experiences of Indigenous women and the intersectionality of their identities within a colonial context, exploring the unique challenges they face and their resistance against patriarchal and colonial systems.
Indigenous Sovereignty: Indigenous sovereignty refers to the inherent right of Indigenous peoples to govern themselves, have control over their lands, resources, and cultural practices, and make decisions that affect their well-being and self-determination.
Decolonization: Decolonization refers to the process of dismantling of colonial systems and structures, empowering indigenous communities, and restoring sovereignty in order to address historical injustices and combat ongoing forms of oppression and marginalization.
Cultural Appropriation: Cultural appropriation refers to the adoption or borrowing of elements from another culture without understanding or respecting its historical, social, or cultural significance.
Indigenous Environmentalism: Indigenous Environmentalism explores the complex relationship between indigenous peoples, their cultural practices, and the protection and stewardship of the environment.
Two-Spirit Identity: Two-Spirit Identity refers to a contemporary term used by some Indigenous peoples to describe individuals who embody both masculine and feminine qualities, often associated with spiritual or ceremonial roles within their communities.
Healing and Reconciliation: Healing and Reconciliation explores the processes and frameworks for addressing historical traumas and building relationships that promote healing and understanding between different ethnic and cultural groups, with a particular focus on indigenous communities.
Race and Ethnicity: Indigenous people often experience systemic racism and discrimination based on their racial and ethnic identity. They may also face challenges related to their ethnic group's interactions with colonizers, imperialists, or settlers.
Gender and Sexuality: Indigenous women, Two-Spirit and LGBTQIA+ individuals experience multiple layers of oppression and marginalization due to their gender and/or sexuality. They also face unique cultural challenges as they navigate their identities within their Indigenous communities.
Class: Indigenous people experience economic disparities and poverty at higher rates compared to non-Indigenous populations. This intersection highlights the links between economic inequality, racism, and other forms of oppression.
Language and Culture: Indigenous people may face discrimination or marginalization based on their language or cultural practices. This intersection explores the impact of colonialism on linguistic and cultural diversity and the importance of language revitalization.
Disability and Health: Indigenous people with disabilities and chronic health conditions may face additional challenges accessing healthcare, education, and other essential services. This intersection highlights the intersections between colonialism, ableism, and healthcare inequities.
Environment: Indigenous people often have deep connections to the land and may experience harms resulting from environmental degradation, resource extraction, and climate change. This intersection explores the impacts of environmental racism, Indigenous sovereignty, and Indigenous knowledge systems.
"Examples of these factors include gender, caste, sex, race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, religion, disability, weight, and physical appearance."
"These intersecting and overlapping social identities may be both empowering and oppressing."
"Intersectional feminism aims to separate itself from white feminism by acknowledging women's differing experiences and identities."
"The term intersectionality was coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989."
"Intersectionality opposes analytical systems that treat each axis of oppression in isolation."
"In this framework, for instance, discrimination against black women cannot be explained as a simple combination of misogyny and racism, but as something more complicated."
"Intersectionality engages in similar themes as triple oppression, which is the oppression associated with being a poor or immigrant woman of color."
"Criticism includes the framework's tendency to reduce individuals to specific demographic factors, and its use as an ideological tool against other feminist theories."
"Critics have characterized the framework as ambiguous and lacking defined goals."
"As it is based in standpoint theory, critics say the focus on subjective experiences can lead to contradictions and the inability to identify common causes of oppression."
"However, little good-quality quantitative research has been done to support or undermine the theory of intersectionality."
"An analysis of academic articles published through December 2019 found that there are no widely adopted quantitative methods to investigate research questions informed by intersectionality."
"The analysis ... provided recommendations on analytic best practices for future research."
"An analysis of academic articles published through May 2020 found that intersectionality is frequently misunderstood when bridging theory into quantitative methodology."
"In 2022, a quantitative approach to intersectionality was proposed based on information theory, specifically synergistic information."
"In this framing, intersectionality is identified with the information about some outcome (e.g. income, etc.) that can only be learned when multiple identities (e.g. race and sex) are known together."
"Intersectionality is identified with the information about some outcome [...] that can [...] not [be] extractable from analysis of the individual identities considered separately."
"Critics [argue] the inability to identify common causes of oppression."
"Intersectionality broadens the scope of the first and second waves of feminism, [...] to include the different experiences of women of color, poor women, immigrant women, and other groups."