Intersectionality in Our Modern Society
In the recent years of world history, socio-political conflicts have often fallen into a very specific category called intersectionality. Intersectionality is a sociological and analytical framework for discerning how the social and political identities of people groups and individuals result in different aggregates of privilege and discrimination. This framework relies heavily on an ‘us and them’ mentality and divides the world into the oppressors and the oppressed, which is a binary outlook that reduces the complexity of our nature. We are all broken, flawed, complex human beings who need salvation, and only Jesus Christ has the power to heal us and bring the facets of our humanity together into a unified whole. It is vital as Christians that we are able to perceive the authentic lines between social groups, in order to respect them and behold our differences as a part of God’s good creation, whilst also reaching with empathy toward all people. In a world where division is rampant, Jesus calls us to be ambassadors for unity.
Intersectionality is an ideology formed by Kimberlee Crenshaw and rooted in Socialist principles. In essence, it is a theory that believes that instead of there being separate forms of discrimination, such as race, gender, sexual identity etc., these forms of discrimination can overlap and compound in ways that disproportionately affect minority classes.
In our modern age, the discussion around Dominant Culture and new status sets is a walk on thin ice. The increased ‘offendability’ of new generations and many people groups has the potential to shut down discussion, and therefore shut down communication. Intersectionality promotes a subjective view of reality, and has enforced the idea of ‘subjective truth’ and ‘subjective reality’. Many people now use their own experiences as the anchor of how they perceive reality, and they have forgone belief in absolute truth. Objectivity has been lost, and therefore cross-culture empathy has broken down.
Intersectionality operates on the math of privilege points and victim points. It is a structure that must be socially enforced and bears similarities to a caste system. It holds the principle that the world systems are inherently unfair and unequal, and that anyone associated with those systems is discriminatory. If they are discriminatory, then they must be evil, and evil must be opposed for the sake of creating new equilibrium.
It is important that we do not oversimplify human conflicts and human differences. Our societies require delicate care and an approach which respects the nuances of a person’s life: their experiences, their upbringing, their personal viewpoints, and who they were born as. Reconciliation, in some cases, appears to be the lowest priority of many of the people groups who are labeling the oppressors of our modern world. In some instances, the ‘loudest voices’ are advocating for love, fighting the hateful, but they are ‘fighting hatred with hatred’. As Scripture says, we are called to “overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21). These social movements have positive intentions, but they are unable to saturate their actions with goodness.
This new form of Otherness undergirds the backdrop many social activists seek to reshape society. These movements can be seen as a way of striving for equity (equal outcomes for all, based on justice) over equality (equal opportunity). Whilst both equity and equality hold great benefit for our society, these people groups must engage in communication, and gracious discussion, giving each other the opportunity to both speak and listen. If every people group were to antagonize based on their own subjective view of reality, rather than collectively seeking shared truth, then more division would be born.
‘Wokeness’ is a term commonly used in relation to many of the socio-political movements of our current time. The concept of “wokeness” stems from the idea that someone is awakening from a delusion or dream. However, it is incredibly dangerous to refer to the lessons of history as delusions. This approach infers that a different kind of societal transition is occurring, one in which people are favoring an ‘us and them’ mentality instead of empathy, and choosing the ‘ignorance is bliss’ path for selfish reasons, or reasons that only will benefit their own people group.
The world is caught between two viewpoints on what ‘status’ is: one is the viewpoint that the power and authority you have in society determines your status (achieved status); the other is the view of status being entirely dependent on what people think of you (ascribed status). Over-reliance on ‘ascribed status’ can create dangerous and false perceptions of people, such as the generalization of certain crimes to an entire race or gender.
Social media has only fanned the flames of intersectionality, filling the conversation with blame, the accusation of complicity, and public shame for inaction. This atmosphere of ‘offendability’, and the online punishment of those who disagree with what is ‘politically correct’, act as conversation-killers. It is this atmosphere which is counterproductive in seeking out viable avenues toward healthy relationships.
Whilst it is true that Jesus calls us to be ambassadors of justice in the world and “to set at liberty those who are oppressed” (Luke 4:18-19), we must also be cautious to remember that deceit is present in all human hearts, even in the hearts of many victims. Our position as sinners before God therefore transcends our ascribed or achieved status, for ultimately “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Intersectionality promotes a loss of this viewpoint and blinds us to recognizing our common fallacies. Equally, when we label an entire people group as ‘oppressor’ due to privilege or skin color, we lose sight of God’s divine handprint upon them as beings who are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14).
God has given us His model for society in 1 Corinthians 12:12-27, with the analogy of The Body of Christ. It reads, “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And, the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’ On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor… God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.’ In the same way, we are called to have equal concern for all of the people groups of the world, instead of following the modern path of an ‘us and them’ mentality.