Understanding

Intersectionality
and the Race to Innocence
 Intersectionality is an analytical framework
that describes how various social identities and
What is forms of discrimination intersect and how
Intersectionality? these result in unique combinations of
discrimination and privilege.
 The concept of intersectionality was coined and developed by
Kimberlé Crenshaw in the late 1980s.
Intersectionality recognises that individuals have multiple,
interconnected social identities (e.g. race, gender, class, sexual
More on orientation, disability, etc.), and recognises that these identities
can overlap or intersect, leading to unique and complex
Intersectionality experiences of privilege and oppression. Take for example, the
unique oppressions faced by queer women or women of
colour.
And basically, in Kimberlé Crenshaw describes how
interlocking systems of power affect those who are most
marginalized in society.
Kimberlé Crenshaw
The Race to
Innocence
 The Race to Innocence as a term, was coined by Mary
Louise Fellows and Sherene Razack in 1998, and is
What is the used to describe the sociological phenomenon in
which an individual comes to believe that their own
race to claim of subordination is the most urgent and that they
are unimplicated in the subordination of others.
innocence Essentially distancing themselves from responsibility
or awareness of their own privilege and instead would
‘race’ to a marginality as a means to do so.
 This analytical framework came after reflection on the reason for failed feminist
political solidarity. And the reason identified was the problem of ‘competing
marginalities.
Competing marginalities int the sense that systems of oppression are distinct and
separate, thus there will be competition for attention on which is most urgent.
However, this is not the case.
Systems of oppression intersect and rely on one another in complex ways. This
More on "interlocking" effect means that the systems of oppression come into existence in and
through one another. Such that class exploitation could not be accomplished without
The Race to Innocence gender and racial hierarchies; and imperialism could not function without class
exploitation and heterosexism.
And any strategy or practice based on the idea of competing marginalities and/or fails
to recognise the intersectionality of these systems will inevitably fail because it
ignores said hierarchal relationships and how this intersectionality poses unique
problem for women of colour, disabled women, queer women etc.
So, when one vies themselves as innocent and refuses to acknowledge that they may
be advantaged by a system oppressing others, and instead claiming one’s marginality
is the worst one, one will still participate in practices that oppress other marginalised
groups.
 Because these systems rely and interact with
one another in such complex ways, it is
ultimately futile to attempt to disrupt one
system without simultaneously disrupting
others.
Conclusion Thus, if one fails to see their domination in
one system, and acts from that basis, that not
only leaves the subordinate others intact, but it
also leaves the system that subordinates them
intact as well.
Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist
Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory, and Antiracist
Politics. - Kimberlé Crenshaw

The Race to Innocence: Confronting Hierarchical Relations among

Women - Mary Louise Fellows and Sherene Razack

Hood Feminism – Mikki Kendall