CR4: Intersectionality at Canal
Identities, in general, are defined through seven major categories: race/ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, age, and physical/mental ability. Within each category, there is a dominant and subordinate group. In Beverly Tatum’s article “The Complexity of Identity,” there are “systematically advantaged” and the systematically disadvantaged” (11). The power is on the dominant group’s side because they get to decide that their identities are considered the standard meanwhile everyone else is the other.
In Jose Calderon’s article “Perspective Taking,” he says “through perspective-taking, we can better comprehend and appreciate each other’s differences in order to find commonalities” (2). In an educational setting, I think it’s extremely helpful for professors to want to understand the perspective of who they’re teaching. Teachers are traditionally the people in charge while the students are fed information without any say. However, changing this dominant-subordinate power dynamic can help create more of a connection and an environment of mutual respect.
Intersectionality is the convergence of multiple identities such as looking at both race and gender rather than one or the other. This allows for more subsections of racism or sexism to pop up. Intersectionality allows for all people to share their unique experience based on their subsection of location. Kimberlé Crenshaw focuses on “how intersectionality shapes the experiences of many women of color” (Mapping the Margins 2). The intersections of multiple identities such as being a black woman who may also be a part of the lower economic status make them more vulnerable because the government does not consider “the intersectional location of women of color…in fashioning the remedy” (Mapping the Margins 4). When it comes to social services or a government-provided resource, it can be really difficult for minority women to qualify for them because the “uniform standards of support ignore the fact that different needs often demand different priorities in terms of resource allocation” (Mapping the Margins 4).
In Robin DiAngelo’s case, her intersectional identity was a white woman who grew up poor. When growing up, she was taught that “a racial Other was formed in my consciousness, an Other through whom I became clean. Race was the one identity that aligned me with the other girls in my school” (My Class Didn’t Trump My Race 140). She empowered herself by using the subordination of another race and realizing all the privileges she held as a white person.
I work at Canal Alliance as an ESL teacher aide. The intersectional identities of the community members at Canal are being Hispanic, working/lower class, and an immigrant. These intersectional identities make them into a marginalized group of people that aren’t thought of in general. The dominant population of Marin is generally white middle to high-class people that have access to more jobs and opportunities. The needs of the people at Canal will be different than the rest of Marin. They are more susceptible to food insecurity, more likely to get hard-working laborious jobs that don’t pay as well, might not have reliable transportation, a lot more responsibilities than the average person. Canal Alliance addresses these intersectionalities by offering programs that are free or low cost to people who need it in the community. This includes ESL classes, high school tutoring, college support, how to become a citizen, get legal support, get immediate assistance, and acquire job skills. As community members begin to learn English by taking ESL classes, they are able to communicate better with their employers or with anyone for that matter. They can make small talk and make everyday connections with people they meet.
