Intersectionality: The many layers of an individual
What is intersectionality? Think of it like the ingredients needed to make a cake, Brandeis University lecturer Laurie Nsiah-Jefferson said at a recent Faculty of Arts and Sciences Diversity Dialogue. Take the eggs, milk, flour, and other ingredients, blend them together and bake, and the final product is the cake. In people, the ingredients are the characteristics they use to identify themselves —male, female, black, white, Muslim, Christian, Bostonian, etc. Like eggs, flour, milk, and sugar intersect to make a cake, those are some of the intersecting ingredients that might make up a person. During her presentation, “Intersectionality: Definitions, Origins, Controversies, and Applications,” Nsiah-Jefferson explained that to better understand an individual and work effectively with him or her, we must understand all the identities that make up the person. “Human lives cannot be explained by taking into account single categories, such as gender, race, and socio-economic status. People’s lives are multi-dimensional and complex,”...