The concept of intersectionality suffers from many negative labels in France. However, in the United States, it is well and truly rooted in the processes of raising awareness of discrimination. Return on a sociological concept forged by Kimberlé Crenshaw.
Intersectionality is gaining more and more place in sociological, but also political, debates and studies. The term, first coined in 1989 by Afro-feminist author Kimberlé Crenshaw, has since been widely democratized in the United States. It is much more difficult to accept in France, a society which nevertheless has many points in common with the US. Why is this term so scary and how can it find its rightful place in social, feminist and anti-racist struggles today? By tracing the origins of this concept, which is above all a tool for theoretical analysis, we have attempted to answer these questions, not without the help of Rokhaya Diallo, author, intersectional feminist and co-host of the podcast Enjoy your Race.
What is intersectionality?
It was in 1989 that the term intersectionality was first heard in the social sciences in the United States. This theory appears in an article written by Afro-feminist author and activist Kimberlé Crenshaw for the Legal Forum from the University of Chicago, titled Marginalizing the Intersection of Race and Gender: A Black Feminist Critique of Anti-Discrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory, and Anti-Racial Politics. Through his studies on the subject, Kimberlé Crenshaw defines the sociological concept in this way: "This is a situation in which an individual brings together racial, social, sexual and spiritual characteristics which cause him to accumulate several social handicaps and make him the victim of different forms of discrimination."
Other big names in intersectionality include Afro-feminist activist Angela Davis. Less known, other feminist figures theorize questions of gender, social class or even race and try to democratize this sociological concept, which makes it possible to analyze social relations. In 2016, for example, American authors and sociologists Patricia Hill Collins and Silma Bilge published the book Intersectionality. This essay highlights the importance and the political dimension of intersectionality in the fight against converging discrimination between race, gender and social class.
Intersectionality should be discussed for what it is and not for the fantasies that are projected onto it
Most of these social scientists and activists have one thing in common: they are black women. They study, but also embody a part of intersectionality, at least its initial definition by Kimberlé Crenshaw. They are also victims of the mysoginoir, this specific discrimination at the crossroads of sexism and racism. Indeed, when the notions of gender and race merge into the same identity, a precise social reality is born, which covers a whole range of stereotypes. Black women, victims of misogynist, will thus undergo hypersexualization, see a whole series of degrading qualifiers (aggressive, lazy …) or even be compared to animals (tigresses, lionesses, monkeys …) .
A reality that exists across the Atlantic, but also in France, a nation that has also built its wealth on slavery and where systemic racism continues. According to Rokhaya Diallo, this notion must therefore be debated and discussed, and not just any old way: "for what she is and not for the fantasies you project on her." Which is far from being the case today.
Why is intersectionality little recognized in France?
In France, the analysis of this theory is considered to cross the Atlantic in the early 2000s. In 2008, the philosopher and feminist Elsa Dorlin published Black feminism: anthology of African-American feminism, 1975-2000, published by L’Harmattan. The following year, Sex, race, class, for an epistemology of domination, a collective work published by the Presses Universitaires de France (Puf), invites us to rethink feminist struggles, particularly through the prism of race.
Rokhaya Diallo, who is one of the figures of intersectional feminism in France, regrets a lack of understanding of the concept, despite the existence of quality scientific resources. "What I see in the sphere that is most visible to the general public is that the term intersectionality is absolutely not understood. We are talking about a movement, a movement, an ideology, even though it is a tool. A practical tool, which makes it possible to analyze the dynamics of power when they are at the crossroads of several oppressions and which was invented from the condition of black women", she explains to us.
In fact, in our country, despite enormous research and educational efforts, intersectionality continues to divide in academia, but not only. "There is a whole political movement that says it is opposed to intersectionality, explains the journalist and director. We face an ideological opposition from feminism, which has proclaimed itself universalist on the basis of the condition of a few white women and which presents itself as antagonist to intersectional feminism, which is said to be particularist. (…) To all those who defend universalism: it is a label that I deny them, because I believe that universalism does not proclaim itself ", develops Rokhaya Diallo.
You cannot be a universalist if you consider intersectionality to be a problem. By doing this, we deny the need to consider women in all their plurality.
Many politicians, sociologists, historians and philosophers also resist intersectionality, questioning this concept (even when they are not experts in the social sciences). Some "stars" among French interllectuals, whose work we can also admire, seem unable to see its relevance. Thus, Gérard Noiriel, a pioneer in the history of immigration to France and the history of the working class, examined the question. While the historian is aware that discrimination can add up and worsen each other, he explains on his blog: "The concept of intersectionality which, according to sociologist Éric Fassin, allows 'to think of the articulation of sex, race and class' is in my eyes a regression compared to the founding principles of sociology. It is not enough to combine, in effect, three reified entities to account for the complexity of social realities. " A disappointing party-prize among others, which shows that intersectionality must free itself from these terrible labels to shine.
Intersectionality, unloved because poorly qualified
"Communitarianism", "racialism", "intellectual hoax"… There are many labels that we tirelessly stick to intersectionality. These terms are however to be banned, according to Rokhaya Diallo. “The very fact of using the term communitarianism is to imply that the problem of racism is the fact of minorities. Communitarianism does not exist in the sense in which it is understood in the French context. There is no desire among minority people to come together in order to challenge the national consensus or the majority. People who meet for community reasons do so either for cultural reasons or for reasons of comfort in an extremely discriminatory context, either for political reasons in the fight against racism ", she explains to us. By insisting that intersectionality encloses absolutely no one.
What, on the other hand, locks people in is racism and sexism, or even classism, grossophobia and validism. So many discriminations that can not add up, but mix and thus create a new form of oppression, which the concept of intersectionality tries to combat with its analyzes. "It is not the role of minorities to ensure that they have a good image, continues Rokhaya Diallo. Since it is absolutely not the role of feminists to please people in a position of domination by trying to wash away the honor of intersectionality precisely because in France there is a lack of culture with regard to this notion. "
It is not the role of minorities to ensure that they have a good image.
In addition to helping to combat systemic oppressions, intersectionality has another strength. This concept of the convergence of issues of race, gender or social class, can allow a spirit of solidarity and the creation of links between minorities and / or allies, to better raise awareness and fight against discrimination. It is therefore not so surprising that it scares certain dominant people who, according to Rokhaya Diallo, should focus more on the work done on the subject. "I invite people who do not understand intersectionality to read the work of Kimberlé Crenshaw", she insists.
A great way to encourage them to document themselves, rather than requiring yet another educational effort (especially aimed at exhausting the dominated). "What interests me today, she concludes, it is to fight racism and sexism effectively, not to submit to terminology that would make some people who think they are universalists feel comfortable. " To the best of my mind …