Wanted: Public messengers to spread the word that gender, sexuality and race matters

I just read this article on CBC News (thank you, Twitter) about a survey in an Ottawa public school district that will solicit information from students around their gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion, languages spoken at home, and other related personal information in order to help schools provide appropriate programs and services for students:

http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/11/04/ottawa-carleton-school-survey-sexual-orientation.html?ref=rss

Aside from the fact that I have not seen the actual survey (although I would love to sneak a peek at it so please post if you come across it!) and therefore cannot comment on the inclusiveness, effectiveness or sensitivity of this survey, I think this initiative reflects a) a growing interest in the interconnectedness of social identities, and b) an increased recognition that developing effective programs and services require an understanding of the complexity and multidimensionality of people's lives. My own isolating experiences of "multiculturalism" and "girls vs. boys" sexual health education in public school lead me to applaud this seemingly progressive approach to public education. (I say, "seemingly progressive," because there is still potential for the survey and data analysis to contribute to the perpetual "othering" of distinct groups of people, and perhaps other unanticipated social harms).

The article describes a mixed response to the survey from students, however I am struck by one's students' response:

"I don't really see how that would help them with anything," said student J.T. Burke. "I don't see what program they can do to help that like depends on your gender, sexuality or race. So, I don't really think it's appropriate."
Apparently we, as intersectional scholars, still have work to do in promoting the virtues, and valid critiques, of an intersectional perspective. This article reminds me that not only do we have to engage in intersectionality debates in the academic literature, but how we are also challenged with "translating" intersectional discourse to the public sphere, especially to contribute to initiatives aimed at promoting equity and inclusivity, such as the Ottawa public school survey, we hope. We might be able to learn from intersectional scholars such as Rebecca Jordan-Young, author of Brain Storm: Flaws in the Science of Sex Differences, who engages scientists and neurobiologists (and the public) in the application of intersectional perspectives to "brain science," to help us speak and answer questions about intersectionality without resorting to our critical feminist discursive secret code.

Maybe instead of doing readings, our homework should be to "explain" intersectionality and its implications to someone immersed in dominant normative discourses.

Posted by Alycia

Lynn Weber hosts the reading group...

This week our reading group met at the Afghan Horseman restaurant and considered the topic of intersectionality and "disaster capitalism".  Lynn Weber shared her writings and led us in a discussion of how intersectionality can better inform our understanding of disasters - in particular the role of "disaster capatilism", and the "intersection between superprofits and megadisasters".  In the reading entitled "Blank is Beautiful: Three Decades of Erasing and Remaking the World" (from the Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein. For an interesting youtube summary on this book see the film http://www.pakistan.tv/videos-shock-doctrine-disaster-capitalism-short-film-%5BVuqudFSt-Uc%5D.cfm).  This is a powerful book, and chapter, but while both Klein and Weber trace this historically back to economist Milton Friedman, and the 1950's however I would argue that the beginnings of North America are routed in this behaviour.  I think of colonization and the role of fear, propaganda, and genocide firmly rooted in colonization - from the handing out of smallpox blankets, to the residential schools, and the role of the Indian Act.  I would be interested to hear from others about where this reading took them in their thinking, and as it relates to your research, teaching or practice.

We also discussed the reading "Feminist Research and Activism to Promote Health Equity" by Lynn Weber and Jennifer Castellow (forthcoming) and will be continuing our discussion on the relationship between biomedicince and intersectionality this week at the conference the "Odd Couple" Biomedicine meets Intersectionality" (november 1-2nd, 2010 SFU).  This innovative conference is a response in many ways to this chapters' call to dialogue with science, rather than rejecting it which only contributes further to its dominance.  They cite Patricia Hill Collins (2000b, p.275) where she states that "Mainstream science operates as such as powerful discourse and set of social practices that, to many, it appears invincible".   This is a new area for me, as I was likely one of those critical of biomedicine but as a proponent of dialogue ... I look forward to this one.   

Musings on Roots and Wings...

It was over a year ago that we started the intersectionality reading group! As my Uncle Mike, and an Elder who I respect has told me, its important to look back before we go forward!  Through the story he shared with me, I am reminded of the importance of looking back, of sitting and reflecting, before moving forward. This reading group is kind of like that for me and I hope for others, a chance to sit on a rock and consider where we have come from, but also what is growing and emerging all around us.  For me the roots of intersectionality are found in poetry, in resistance movements, and the work of artists.  The Combahee River Collective started as a reading group and was informed by the political agendas of the day.  I don't want to lose the focus on social action and political change that resonates in their statement.  I am also struck by the role of language, of speaking the oppressors' language as Gloria Anzaldua said in her work Borderlands..  " I am my language... I will no longer be made to feel ashamed of existing.  I will have my voice: Indian, Spanish, white.  I will have my serpent's tongue - my woman's voice, my sexual voice, my poet's voice... (81).  Or the words of Aude Lorde "my fullest concentration of energy is available to me only when I integrate all the parts of who I am, openly, allowing power from particular sources of my living to flow back and forth freely through all my different selves, without the restrictions of externally imposed definitions.."   There is a poetry inside of this theory, of that I am sure.

If poetry and political movements are the roots, I wonder at the wings of intersectionality? I feel at times that it has been disguised,  discussed and dissected, even decorated to the point where it is unrecognizable.  I hope that through this group and our shared wonderings from all of our unique and varied vantage points, we can begin to move in new directions with our own research and social action...