Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey

Campus Monterrey

Anthropology of the body

Gpo. 601

Identifying Intersectionality and its Representation

Team 4:
Carola Sofía Martínez Rodríguez A01178154
Mariana Alejandra Medina Acevedo A00836849
Guillermo Najera Lobo A01722738

Date:
24/09/2023
 1. “Intersectionality refers to ‘the way overlapping identities — including race, class,
ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation’ — affect how oppression and discrimination are
experienced” (Dastagair qtd. in bodies). List all of the overlapping identities you can
identify in the discussion of discrimination in the documentary “El racismo que México no
quiere ver”.

● Race/Skin Color: People with darker skin or indigenous backgrounds face

racism. The speaker in the documentary mentions that his acting career exposed
him to new people from a different ethnic and racial origin. He mentions that as a
person who comes from a minority group, he has to work harder that other
people that enjoy a set of privileges and that come from a completely different
social, ethnic, and economic background.
● Class: Socioeconomic factors can intersect with discrimination, as individuals
from lower socioeconomic backgrounds may face additional barriers and
prejudices.
● Ethnicity: Indigenous peoples experience historical discrimination.
● Gender: Gender can also play a role in discrimination experiences.
● Nationality and Immigration Status: We can observe in the documentary that
discrimination can intersect with nationality and immigration status, leading to
experiences of xenophobia or anti-immigrant bias. This case is often seen here in
Mexico with people immigrating from countries like Venezuela, Guatemala,
among others.
● Language: The documentary also talks about how language discrimination may
affect individuals who speak languages other than the dominant language in a
particular region. For example, if the actor, who speaks spanish, appears on an
english-talking movie or project.

2. According to Kimberlé Crenshaw, intersectionality is “a way of thinking about identity and

its relationship to power” that has social, political, economic, personal, and bodily
implications. What is the relationship shown in the film between racism and power? Work
to identify and exemplify the social, political, economic, personal, and bodily implications
of this power relationship as it is shown in “El racismo que México no quiere ver”.

The relationship shown in the documentary between racism and power can be identified in
different ways, one of the ways that is mostly portrayed is in the case of the actor he says that
power and race are completely associated. How they mistreat him for being “darker” or Mexican
goes directly and is displayed on his work. How he always gets the messed up character, the
poor character, the mean one, the “smaller roles”; and how even then when he does get good
roles he does not get paid the same amount as other people, white people specifically.

This specifically showcases power in his work and how race, for the people at “corporate” or
people in greater power in that industry, think of it as such. This discrimination and stereotyping
in his work can potentially, definitely, lead to segregation of marginalized communities leading to
more discrimination and further racism which at times can lead to people not even
understanding they’re benign racist “because that is what they were taught”.

Carola Mtz Mariana Medina Guillermo Najera

Question 2 List of the Overlapping

overlapping identities
identities in the
documentary