Intersectional Justice
What Is Intersectional Justice?
Kimberlé Crenshaw, a civil rights activist and legal scholar, coined the term “intersectionality.” In 1989. Crenshaw recognized that overlapping or multiple discriminations are profoundly damaging. For example, racism and sexism can collude to foster even more egregious injustices for women of color. When a woman of color is also an impoverished trans woman, the resulting experience of injustice is exponentially more severe. Crenshaw’s notion of intersectionality serves to remind us that we all have overlapping identities and experiences that may engender a complex web of oppression, discrimination, and injustice for some of us. (For mor information, you can read her rather academic paper here and view a TED talk she offered on the notion of “intersectionality” here.)
Within our congregation, we focus on intersectional justice as a way of considering how overlapping forms of oppression are at play in our society. As such, we seek to deepen our understanding of cultural, economic, environmental and racial injustices. And we endeavor to translate our understanding of these intersecting injustices into work as accomplices with partners in the larger community.
Information about opportunities for Justice Work can be found in our Currents Newsletter.