Intersectionality – Race matters

October 2025: An ethics of struggle: ‘Ask[ing] the other question’

Note: Dr. Anderson is on academic leave until February 2026

Delia

“The way I try to understand the interconnection of all forms of subordination is through a method I call “ask the other question.” When I see something that looks racist, I ask, “Where is the patriarchy in this?” When I see something that looks sexist, I ask, “Where is the heterosexism in this?” When I see something that looks homophobic, I ask, “Where are the class interests in this?” (Mari J. Matsuda, 1991, p. 1189)

Last month Kagowa Kuruneri, Director of the Office of Equity, Access, and Participation, and I began a conversation about the relationship between equity and anti-racism work. In this next instalment we discuss Mari Matsuda’s approach of ‘asking the other question.’

Why is it important to ask the other question?

Mari Matsuda’s insightful strategy of asking the other question is an example of intersectionality in action. Her intervention invites encourages a particular kind of attentiveness by disrupting either/or framing (e.g., race versus gender) and encouraging an interrogation of how different elements of our identity influence our location in different systems of power.

Consider what happens when we don’t ask the other question?

Who is typically left out?
Who continues to be harmed?
Who benefits?

The Federal Contractors Program identified the following four employment equity categories: “women,” “visible minorities,” “persons with disabilities,” and Indigenous peoples. In addition to the glaring omission of the of 2SLGBTQIA+ folx, this all-encompassing language is limited and limiting, ultimately maintains hierarchies of race, gender, and sexuality (for example). Race is not only relevant to folx typically regarded as raced – namely Indigenous, Black, and racially marginalized people, rendering whiteness invisible. Correspondingly, the focus on “women” regards gender as a homogenous category framework, thereby marginalizing and/or negating the factwe are simultaneously racialized, engendered, and so on. As a result, the centrality given to gender erases, or “e-races” the existence of folx who inhabit multiple categories, discounting the stereotypes and forms of dehumanization that are specific to the history of racialized gender identity and status.

Domination does not simply happen through explicit acts of violence, but through the trivialization, repudiation, and the failure to notice activities, beliefs, and language that fails to capture our complexity and diversity. This institutionalized approach to inequity and discrimination not only inhibits our capacity to recognize much less respond to the varied needs of folx who exist within each group, this institutionalized approach to inequity and discrimination places us in opposition to each other. It is an approach that teaches – and encourages us – to not see ourselves in each other to only think about/consider one form of oppression as the form of oppression. The scale and nature of our current problems requires clarity and analytical precision.

Asking the other question is an integral part of an ethics of struggle. It invites us to reflect on the categories/concepts that we use when we try to understand the society in which we are living and the society in which we are working towards creating more just futures.

…to be continued…

Kagowa

Progressive and liberatory movements rightly name injustice with uncompromising clarity. The question, however, is whether calling out harm on its own paves the way to systemic change or whether actual coalitions formed by people are necessary to bring down these systems. If so, how do we build those coalitions when internal dynamics, as much as external pushback, make that difficult? Although we tend to emphasize the external obstacles that prohibit access to equity spaces, there are also barriers within movements that need to be taken seriously.

This pressure is particularly acute when those already struggling for liberation find their voices lost or ignored in larger coalitions. The frustration of not being seen can just be as powerful a barrier to sustained engagement as any that’s externally imposed. This isn’t just a philosophical question but the real-life echo of radical movements such as #DisabilityJustice, when demands for systemic shifts are downplayed in favor of other, seemingly “more urgent” priorities. And yet it shows something we have in common: the price of admission to “progressive” spaces can be steep – by giving you the sense that your struggle isn’t new or urgent or grave enough.

This isn’t a case of “outrage fatigue” (although solidarity burnout is definitely real) so much as deeper systemic problems: implicit hierarchies within movements and an underdeveloped ability to handle complex intersectionality without falling into reproductions of exclusion. And it’s important to acknowledge this cost of admission from within while also engaging others who are not in the arena nearly as much, if at all, as part and parcel of building transformative power.

The Two Costs of Exclusion & Why They’re Linked

This is a double bind- Cost 1) people who don’t know critical things (like intersectionality, the importance of historical context) may feel rebuffed or unable to participate in meaningful ways; and Cost 2) those of us already working for liberation can be marginalized when our particular needs are ignored.

These two costs are intimately connected. The same structures that serve as barriers to entry for newcomers (e.g. unspoken norms around expertise and “right” language) and implied rankings based on demonstrated solidarity or lived experience, also contribute to internal exclusion within equity work itself. This can mean dismissal (e.g. you’re not truly an ally if you don’t get it), shutting down some voices (especially those that stray from the dominant narratives) and the constant demand to “prove” commitment through performance rather than solidarity.

This is not about lowering the bar or diluting standards. It’s about understanding that true freedom means tearing down arbitrary walls of exclusion in all areas, even if they come from good places. It requires building sites of emanation where people can feel safe enough to ponder concepts without immediate rejection, while still lifting up folks who have long been doing deep analysis whose voices need air.

Beyond Condemnation: Building Bridges Without Lowering Standards and Strengthening Solidarity Within Equity Movements

Resources

Mari J. Matsuda (1991). Beside my sister, facing the enemy: Legal theory out of coalition. Stanford Law Review, 43, 1183-1192.

September 2025: Thinking through: Equity and anti-racism

Mari Matsuda (1991): Ask the other question: The interconnection of all forms of subordination

“Working in coalition forces us to look for both the obvious and the non-obvious relationships of domination, and, as we have done this, we have come to see that no form of subordination ever stands alone.” (p. 1189) Beside my sister, Facing the enemy: Legal theory out of coalition, Stanford Law Review, 43(6): 1183-1192.

Delia

As we embark on a new term, we find ourselves in a time of heightened hostilities, anxieties, and backlash against EDI, anti-racism, LGBTQIA+ rights, and gender diversity.

Critical race scholar, Mari Matsuda’s crucial observations about all forms of subordination frame this month’s conversation, which is “thinking through” domination, and the relationship between equity, and anti-racism in social justice work.

Kagowa Kuruneri, Director of the Office of Equity, Access, and Participation at Rady and I will be “thinking through” these relationships in a series of blogs.

EDI (a successor to employment equity) has typically had much greater visibility in Canadian universities than anti-racism… Relegated to the margins, in Canadian post-secondary institutions racism has often been ‘an unspeakable thing unspoken’ to paraphrase Toni Morrison (1988).

There are many reasons for EDI’s prominence – some of which include the white settler colonial structure and culture of post-secondary institutions and the under-representation of diverse Black, Indigenous, and racialized minority folx as faculty and senior leaders. There is also the matter of the profound knowledge gap regarding the meaning and significance of race and racism. The knowledge gap means that the work necessary to disrupt/eliminate the various barriers/social relations/attitudes/practices that promote and/or sustain racial inequality, and the damage of racism(s) have not been taken up.

There is also the issue of language – the terms equity, diversity, and inclusion are ‘gentle’/neutral and ambiguous terms. They may signal absences and inequalities, but the systemic nature of these disparities is not explicitly named. For example, diversity talk has often been descriptive with a focus on representation. It does not challenge or address injustice, or structural and historical disadvantage, it does not suggest changing institutional values, norms or practices. Diversity therefore becomes whatever an organization wants it to be – we talk about ‘celebrating diversity,’ but how does diversity talk challenge or address structural exclusion, selective inclusion and questions of injustice?

Language matters

Equity for whom?

In Canadian universities, despite 30 years of effort to address systemic barriers, equity has essentially meant gender equity, with the majority of hires being white, able-bodied women. As a result, these institutions remain overwhelmingly white in terms of administration, faculty, curriculum, and culture.

Equity – What’s race got to do with it? What about racial equity? What about systemic racism(s)?

Similar to the rationale behind the creation of the Disruption of All Forms of Racism Policy, the explicit coupling of race with equity speaks to the need to address the enduring racial disparities and racial harms that have not been substantively dismantled via broad based EDI frameworks and strategies. The prioritization of race is important because racism is entrenched in our day-to-day lives both in and outside of the university.

As long the impact of racisms continues to be marginalized/ignored/denied interpersonal and social relations will be compromised, talent will be lost and Indigenous, Black, and racialized minority peoples will continue to suffer trauma and harm. So, if we are to understand the full effects of racism, our approaches/practices – and language – must adapt so that we can avoid oversimplification/erasure/silence.

Given that the challenges we face are multifaceted, requiring multiple approaches and strategies, we think about equity and anti-racism as a both/and proposition….

Kagowa

Equity & Anti-Racism: Charting a Course for Systemic Change at Rady Faculty of Health Sciences

Higher education institutions across Canada are increasingly focused on equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). In the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, we are committed to disentangling the complicated interrelationship that exists between equity work and anti-racism work. This series aims to engage in a thoughtful discussion, reflection, and action as we continue to strive to make a more just and inclusive learning and working environment for everyone. A central tenet of this conversation is recognizing the importance of clear terminology. Although we often use equity and anti-racism interchangeably, anti-racism is not interchangeable with equity, but rather a key component within wider equity efforts.

Defining Our Terms: Equity & Anti-Racism

Equity goes beyond equal opportunity. It’s recognizing that systemic barriers exist and taking active steps to erase them – with equitable outcomes for all. It requires attention to historical disadvantage and acknowledging the way that past injustices continue to shape the present. Anti-racism, on the other hand, is a particular set of actions to eliminate racism in all its different manifestations, including personal bias, systemic inequality, and unfair institutional practices. It’s not enough to just “not be racist”; it necessitates actively recognizing, challenging, and dismantling the systems that uphold racial inequality.

It is the conflict implicit in these definitions that we need to recognize. Equity and anti-racism are both needed for a genuinely just society, but they work at different levels and have different strategies. While anti-racist work can be considered equity, not all equity is anti-racist work. The heart of this separation – the explicit emphasis on race and racial injustice in anti-racism – is where our most essential discussions are needed.

The Historical Context: Equity Work & the Limits of EDI

Within Canadian universities, initiatives focused on equity, diversity, and inclusion often receive significantly more visibility than dedicated anti-racism efforts. Historically, employment equity policies – the precursors to current EDI frameworks – were designed primarily around gender representation. While crucial for addressing gender imbalances, these initiatives often fall short of tackling systemic racism directly. As Dr. Douglas has also referenced, and as Toni Morrison powerfully articulated in Unspeakable Things Unspoken, race, racism, and racial inequity have often been ‘unspeakable things left unspoken’ within post-secondary institutions across not only America, but Canada as well. This legacy continues to shape our conversations today. While Morrison’s insights are rooted in African-American experiences, this sentiment is applicable to a Canadian context. We need to critically examine how this silence has limited our ability to address racism effectively and ensure meaningful progress for Indigenous, Black, and racialized minority communities.

The University’s Role: Beyond Performative Allyship

Universities are not neutral spaces; they contribute to both the problem of inequality and hold significant potential as agents of change. From admissions criteria to funding models, our institutions often perpetuate systemic barriers that limit access and opportunity for marginalized groups. So, we have a responsibility to actively dismantle these barriers through inclusive pedagogy, equitable practices, and supportive policies.

At Rady, our commitment to creating a more just and equitable community involves moving beyond symbolic gestures towards substantive change. Our strategic plan emphasizes “empowering learners” through interprofessional education – focusing on curricular development. While a step in the right direction, this commitment must extend beyond the classroom to encompass learner participation within that space—ensuring a free-from-mistreatment environment where students feel supported in speaking up and are consistently believed when they do. It’s not enough to have sound policies and procedures, we require mechanisms in place that support and enforce these. They need to be effective.

We have also committed to “Fostering a Vibrant Community” through common core competencies in social justice, anti-racism, ableism, and anti-oppressive practices for all faculty and staff. Crucially, these commitments remain largely aspirational at this stage – definitive processes and actions are still under development over the next 6 to 18 months. There is scope for these initiatives to expand, particularly in ways that directly support learners and create a more inclusive environment for students from diverse backgrounds.

Conclusion & A Call to Collective Action

Equality and anti-racism are two sides of the same coin and a necessary step towards achieving an all-inclusive and truly just environment within the university. As we move forward, it is important to critically reflect on our own assumptions, have open discussions, and take action to support equity efforts at the University of Manitoba. Such change will be difficult, but together, we can work collectively, remain committed, and be willing to disrupt the status quo so that we can create a more just future for all members of our community.

To be continued….

Resources:

Simon Blanchette (August 18, 2025). The Conversation. Rebranding equity as ‘belonging’ won’t advance justice its DEI rollback in disguise

Toni Morrison (1988). Unspeakable things unspoken: The Afro-American presence in literature. The Tanner lectures on human values. University of Michigan.

September 2024: Working towards more just futures

“It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have”
(James Baldwin, 1972, p. 149). No name in the street. New York: The Dial Press.

Marcia

Welcome to the 2024-2025 academic year. I’m really proud of the work across Indigenous health, social justice and anti-racism, and the ongoing efforts to contribute to more culturally safe and racially just outcomes. Dr. Douglas continues to provide leadership in developing new educational initiatives to enhance the racial literacy of the Rady community.

Working with the Offices of Equity, Access and Participation, and Community Engagement and Social Accountability, the new dialogue series will align with the Faculty strategic priority of reciprocal community engagement and build from passive receipt of knowledge to active dialogue. These offices provide excellent educational resources to our community, but it is up to each of us to apply that knowledge in our work and learning environments.

This year I encourage you to reflect regularly on how you can take the new things you learn, and apply this new knowledge in meaningful ways that result in more culturally safe and anti-racist environments for our increasingly diverse community. It is through your individual and collective actions that positive change will happen.

Delia

September greetings! A new academic year is upon us and as part of our commitment in working towards more just futures we will be launching a number of initiatives that we want to tell you about.

Here Come the Modules:

Foundations of Race, Racism, and Anti-Racism

This online module is one mechanism that builds on the Disruption of All Forms of Racism Policy by providing people with a resource to cultivate their racial literacy.

I understand that people come to this material from different vantage points. This module is an opportunity to expand our understanding of the meaning and significance of race and the persistence of racism because to combat racism in its various forms, we must first understand it.

You cannot get to anti-racism without reckoning with racism, so this course is an opportunity for folx to enhance their racial literacy by providing them with a vocabulary for identifying and speaking to each other across our differences in the service of social justice.

Some of the topics covered include:

Why race matters
What is race?
White matters: The social construction of whiteness
Racisms and their impact
What is racism?
Impacts of racism
Continuing your journey: Next steps

The Black Health Primer

The Black Health Primer officially launched on March 21, 2024, the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The Primer is an 8 module online, self-paced, and asynchronous course, comprised of quizzes, case studies, reflections, and multimedia. Designed for learners from across health disciplines, professions, organizations and communities, the Primer was created in response to gaps in education and training on Black health and anti-Black racism in medicine and public health in Canada.

The Primer describes the historical context of racial oppression, explains how anti-Black racism influences the social determinants of health, and acts as a barrier to health equity. Participants will gain knowledge about anti-Black racism and Black health and this knowledge will improve the racial literacy of health care practitioners. This will enrich the health of Black communities, as well as the health of all patients. Enhanced racial literacy is imperative, as it is integral to the delivery of anti-racist care.

Dialogues of Disruption

The third initiative is a collaborative effort by all the offices that fall under the portfolio of Dr. Marcia Anderson, Vice Dean of Indigenous Health, Social Justice and Anti-Racism. This includes the Offices of Anti-Racism, Equity, Access and Participation, and Community Engagement and Social Accountability.

In the upcoming academic year, we will be hosting a series of events in the upcoming academic year under the title: Dialogues of disruption: An invitation to work towards more just futures.

These monthly events will address a variety of themes that correspond to our areas of work, some of which include disability justice; connections, coalitions and false equivalencies: the indivisible connections between racial, gender, and lgbtqia+ justice; and anti-racism and engagement with newcomer, refugee and immigrant communities.

We wanted to draw attention to under-served and under-represented communities, along with local organizations, exploring areas of silence, marginalization, and invisibility by providing a meeting ground to collaborate in our work towards more just futures. In this spirit we will be inviting members from some of these communities to provide their indispensable input about the needs and priorities in their communities so that we may engage with them in ways that are appropriate and meaningful. It is our hope that disrupting dialogues will offer guidance in the journey of un-learning and learning, while encouraging and inspiring change and possibility.

The first event will be an introduction to each of the Offices mentioned above and an opportunity to speak to our distinct and shared work with a Q & A at the end.

Dialogues of Disruption: Upcoming Event

This event will be held on September 24, 12 to 1:00 pm. It will be a hybrid event taking place in Basic Medical Sciences Theatre-B and online. For more information or to register, visit our event page.

We all have a role to play. We look forward to working towards more just futures with you.

Resources

Black Health Education Collaborative: bhec.ca

Knowledge One Interview Foundations of race, racism, and anti-racism: https://knowledgeone.ca/interview-foundations-of-race-racism-and-anti-racism-online-course/

June 2024: Bodies in motion, bodies at play: What’s race got to do with it?

“Everyone I see playing basketball is black. Everyone playing basketball must be black. If I am not black, I can’t play basketball; if you are black, you must be a basketball player”
Patricia J. Williams, 1997, p. 51. (Seeing a Color Blind Future. New York, NY: Noonday Press).

Marcia

I love to watch the Olympics, and I’m looking forward to the Summer Games this year. As I watch events this year, I’ll be holding questions from the blog Dr. Douglas has written below. Sport- like in some arenas of medicine- has some deeply engrained biologic assumptions about race. I wonder how these seep into my consciousness when I think about who is on the podium at what events, what this means about my assumptions about muscle mass and how this might infiltrate my thinking then when I’m in clinical spaces. This year, and with the very helpful critical reflections below, I’ll be challenging myself to see where I still carry assumptions about “natural ability” and push myself to see the hard work, persistence, and discipline of the athletes. I’ll ask myself the challenging questions about how income and opportunity gaps that do occur by race are impacting who we see represented in what events, in the results, and in the media coverage.

Delia

Continuing the conversation about sport matters, this month’s blog takes up the question of race, sex, gender, and embodiment….

The WNBA (Coming to Toronto in 2026!), NBA, PWHL, NHL, soccer, tennis, pickleball, track and field… oh yeah, and golf …

Although sport is a key part of North American culture, we tend to underestimate its cultural and political significance: it is a place where different histories, traditions, and myths meet and intersect, creating cultural meanings and identities which travel across different mediums, national borders and commercial markets. It is a place where major cultural and political debates about identity, community and politics are staged and performed.

Sport is a visual and a visible field. It is a place where social dramas play out between different groups – historically and in the present. Recall Jesse Owen’s victories at the Berlin Olympics, Althea Gibson breaking the colour bar at Wimbledon, Jackie Robinson’s trailblazing in MLB, Taffy Abel and Willie O’Ree’s groundbreaking presence in the NHL, Evonne Goolagong’s victory at the French Open, Cathy Freeman’s run to gold at the Sydney Olympic Games, and South Carolina vs Iowa in the NCAA women’s basketball final (I gotta give Coach Staley and co their flowers).

Because sport (and physical activity) are bodily practices, they enable the continued observation and discussion of sex, gender identity and expression, and racial difference in analyses of performance. In this context, the preponderance of certain groups in particular physical activities, coupled with their absence in others, has been readily interpreted as evidence of the natural differences in the ability and potential of different social groups. These patterns of participation are significant precisely because their visibility/visual logic conveys power and privilege; over time what we see becomes what we recognize and believe. potent cultural narratives about different groups are produced and normalized. In turn, because we have been socialized to be unaware of the ways in which power and privilege work in these settings, customary patterns of perception regarding sex, gender, racial, and sexual differences are perpetuated.

Sport studies scholars CL Cole and Susan Birrell explore how sport is a difference and power producing system” (1990, p. 18): it “works to differentiate winners from losers, the men from the boys, and the men from the women” (p. 18). I would add that sport also works to differentiate different racialized, engendered (gender identity and expression) and embodied groups. Simply put sport constructs and normalizes a binary logic of separation – this either/or framing does not allow for nuance, diversity, or complexity.

Think of it like this – putting a basketball in a hoop and explosive speed are actions that are seen, rather than interpreted. This is one of the key elements of the power of sport; namely, it is an area of life that seems to exist in the realm of the natural and is therefore not seen as requiring interpretation (Willis, 1982).

However, things are not so simple. We are socialized to be unaware of how the “seeing” of race and other social differences are in fact an interpretation rather than an objective account of what is ‘there.’ For example, the hypervisibility of some groups and the exclusion of others tends to bolster prevailing beliefs about racial difference that rely on biology to explain performance and participation rates.

For example, the fact that the times for the men’s 100 metres, the distance thrown for the shot put, etc. are different from those for women have been used as a way of reinforcing prevailing gender ideologies about a clear binary, one that confirms the so-called superiority of “men” over “women” (Willis, 1982). In the same way the success of Black athletes in basketball and sprint events, reinforces longstanding beliefs about the presumed natural athleticism of Black athletes. FYI – in the 1970s and 80s the sprint events were dominated by athletes from central and eastern Europe; in the 1960s 20% of the NBA consisted of Black players, currently over 70%, and the NHL is 97% white). Correspondingly, this presumed athletic superiority is believed to indicate bodily prowess over powers of the mind.

But ask yourself this: why isn’t the visibility and success of white Europeans in winter sports not read as evidence of innate athletic superiority and the absence of intellectual ability, but instead as confirmation of discipline and mental application? This typical “reading” of difference in athletic performance between different groups illustrates how the meaning and import of athletic performance and sporting events hold a cultural and political significance that extends well beyond the fields of play.

Sport is a complex and contradictory space, for it is a place where the presence and success of 1 or 2 Black, Indigenous, or racialized minority athletes is seen as evidence of equality – or of the absence of racism – rather than exceptions to systemic racial exclusion and racial tension.

Sport is a crucial locus of social justice struggles. It not only teaches us to “see” difference, sport teaches us to regard some differences as more important than others, amplifies them, and then uses them to support beliefs about sex, race, and gender inferiority and superiority – beliefs which uphold social inequality (Willis, 1982).

We will be going on summer hiatus: the blog will return in September.

Resources

Birrell, S., & Cole, CL. (1990).Double fault: Renee Richards, and the construction and naturalization of difference, Sociology of Sport Journal, 7(1), 1-21.

Douglas, D. D. (2018). Disqualified! Serena Williams and Brittney Griner: Black female athletes and the politics of the im/possible. In K. Farquharson, K. Pillay, P. Essed, and E. White (Eds.), Relating worlds, of racism: Dehumanization, belonging and the normativity of whiteness (pp. 329-355). London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

Hartmann, D. (2002). Sport as Contested Terrain. In D. T. Goldberg & J. Solomos (Eds.), A companion to race and ethnic studies (pp. 405-415). Malden, MA: Blackwell.

King, C.R. (2007). Staging the ~~Winter~~ white Olympics: Or, why sport matters to white power. Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 31(1), 89-94.

Willis, P. (1982). Women in sport in ideology. In J. Hargreaves (Ed.), Sport, culture and ideology (pp. 117-135). London, UK: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

March 2024: Integrate this! Grammars of recognition, survival, and resistance

Marcia

As Dr. Douglas notes below, March contains both International Women’s Day and the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Maybe we need an International Day for Intersectionality to recognize the fullness and wholeness of our identities and how that intersects with our experiences of social systems that structure access to power, money and resources- including the resource of health care.

From the time I was a junior faculty member, I would often use the predictors of referral for cardiac catheterization (table 5 from Schulman et al. – linked below) to highlight how it’s not enough to just say women receive inequitable treatment for heart disease, we have to look more closely at how different women are treated.[1] This isn’t a standalone study. Other research demonstrates Black Women have a higher risk of heart disease, hyperlipidemia, high blood pressure and diabetes but are significantly less likely to receive appropriate preventive care.[2] From maternal health outcomes to gender pay gaps, when we look more closely we see the interaction of race and gender- reminding us that both our analysis and our action needs to be more complex than trying to reduce our experiences of difference to a single variable.

[1] Table from Schulman et al. The Effect of Race and Sex on Physicians’ Recommendations for Cardiac Catheterization. NEJM (1999). https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejm199902253400806.

[2] Jha et al. Differences in Medical Care and Disease Outcomes Among Black and White Women with Heart Disease. Circulation (2003). https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/01.cir.0000085994.38132.e5

Delia

Following a landmark ruling by Canada’s highest court of appeal in October 1929, some women were legally recognized as “persons.” Notably, this ruling did not apply to Black, Indigenous, or racialized minority women.

March is Women’s History Month.
March 8 is International Women’s Day.
March 21^st is International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

While that ruling was passed nearly a century ago, the question of personhood, of humanness, remains a site of struggle.

I have been thinking about ongoing efforts to discipline and punish those on the margins.

Who is often excluded in language that homogenizes…which women are we referring to when we say women?

I have been thinking about women, 2SLGBTQQIA+, folx, and disabled folx – where and when (if at all) does race enter these conversations?

To put it another way, disability, gender identity, and expression, and sexuality are always racialized. Race is always present whether or not it is named. What I mean is this – there is a tendency to address race as if it is only relevant to those perceived to be raced subjects – Black, Indigenous, and racialized minority folx. Excluding whiteness from the racial order fails to identify the racialization processes assigned to people of European ancestry.

Racism occurs in 2SLGBTQQIA+ spaces. Racism occurs in disability politics. Racism occurs between and among diverse women…there is no place to stand outside of racism.

All our lives are shaped by multiple axes of power.

I have been thinking about recognition, survival, and resistance.

How might we begin to make sense of the complex ways in which race, gender, sexuality, and disability operate independently and simultaneously to shape our diverse lived experiences?

Diverse women are differently vulnerable in a society organized around heteropatriarchy, white supremacy, capitalism, and ableism. Not all women experience these violences, harms, and wounds in the same way.

We must acknowledge and prioritize complexity.

Disrupting and dismantling racial-sexual-gender-ableist hierarchies requires nuance and a rejection of either/or thinking.

The rejection and denial of difference, the rejection and denial of complexity, and the rejection and denial of personhood are part of past and present settler colonial projects.

If we can’t recognize the specific identities and experiences of people, then we won’t be able to adequately respond to their needs.

Kimberlé Crenshaw’s framing of intersectionality discourages us from attempting to determine one form of inequality as separate from other forms of inequality. For example, it does not see race as more or less important than gender, rather it acknowledges and responds to people’s experiences as simultaneously shaped by the intersections of the various elements of identity, including race, gender identity, and expression, sexual orientation and ability. Intersectionality is a lens that does not position forms of inequality against each other to determine who has endured harm, resulting in a hierarchy of oppression which is itself another form of harm.

So, I am thinking about the need for a racial literacy that is expansive in its capacity to identify and challenge multiple systems of oppressions at once. It is a racial literacy that considers disability and its integration with anti-racist, feminist, and queer practices in its conceptualization of social justice struggles.

Resources

Lindsey, Treva, B. (2015). “Post-Ferguson: A “Herstorical” Approach to Black Violability.” Feminist Studies, 41(1), 232-237.

Simms, Sy, Nicolazzo, Z., & Jones, Alden. (2023). Don’t say sorry, do better: Trans students of color, disidentification, and internet futures. Diversity in Higher Eduation,16(3), 297-308.