TED Talk: Intersectionality with Kimberlé Crenshaw

Questions and Answers

People are not aware of these problems

The frames available to understand these problems do not account for the experiences of black women (correct)

There are not enough facts about these problems

The police and policymakers are not taking these problems seriously

They are not interested in solving these problems

There are no frames available to understand these problems (correct)

They are not aware of the problems faced by black women

They are not influenced by the available frames

It assumes that solutions to problems affecting one group will automatically benefit all subgroup members (correct)

It focuses too much on individual experiences

It ignores the experiences of black women

It is too focused on policy changes

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<p>A chance encounter with a woman named Emma DeGraffenried</p> Signup and view all the answers

Study Notes

The speaker, Kimberlé Crenshaw, conducts an exercise where she names African Americans who have been killed by the police, and the audience is asked to sit down if they don't recognize the names.
The names that are recognized are mostly of black men, while the unrecognized names are mostly of black women.
This exercise has been conducted with various groups, including women's rights organizations, civil rights groups, professors, and members of Congress, and the result is consistently the same: low awareness of police violence against black women.

Communication experts suggest that when facts don't fit with available frames, people have a difficult time incorporating new facts into their understanding of a problem.
The lack of frames for black women's experiences leads to their names and stories being forgotten, ignored, or overlooked by reporters, policymakers, and politicians.

A trickle-down approach to social justice, where issues affecting black people and women are addressed separately, often fails to address the specific experiences of black women.
Without frames that consider the intersection of multiple social justice issues, many individuals will fall through the cracks of social justice movements.

The term "intersectionality" was coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw to address the overlapping nature of social justice problems, such as racism and sexism.
The concept of intersectionality arose from Crenshaw's encounter with Emma DeGraffenried, an African-American woman who faced race and gender discrimination at a local car manufacturing plant.