Intersectionality
This week we read "Teaching at the Intersections: Honor and teach about your students’ multiple identities" by Monita K. Bell and watched a video called "5 tips for being an ally" by Franchesca Ramsey.
I actually watched this video in summer institute! I remember this video so clearly because that was the first time I learned that there are 29 states where you can legally be fired for being gay and 34 states where you can legally be fired for being trans. I guess because I am young and have grown up in the northeast, in an era where the LGBTQ community was regularly talked about, and gay marriage is now legal, and I went to a high school (the age that dating started) there were people who were openly gay, etc. All of these factors of my life led me to believe that being LGBTQ was widely accepted unless you were living in the south or affiliated with certain religious groups. I didn’t realize that it was still such a huge legal issue and that there were still so many states that took away the everyday rights of LGBTQ people. And according to this article, I am not the only one! The author states, "Perceptions of discrimination against gay and lesbian people have plummeted over the past few years, particularly among young people. Only 55 percent of Americans believe that gay and lesbian people face a lot of discrimination in the U.S., down from 68 percent in 2013." An even more worrying statistic is that "A 2019 Gallup survey found that a majority (54 percent) of the public feel satisfied with the level of acceptance of gay and lesbian people in the country." However, this stands highly at odds with reality, because LGBTQ people experience discrimination in this country every day. This study even shows that violence against LGBTQ people in increasing, at least as of 2017. All of this ties into what we have been learning in class about privilege, especially Johnson's ideas of privilege, that if you are in the privileged group, you will just not see/notice all of the discrimination happening to those outside of the privileged group. I think is also the main argument of the video, as Francesca describes having the privilege as having on horse blinders. She argues that if you want to take action and be an ally, you need to first listen to people in the LGBTQ community because they know what they are talking about because they experience discrimination and circumstances that you don’t. A lack of listening, and researching on my part led me to go 22 years of my life without knowing that you can be fired for being gay or trans in more than half of the states.
The first time I had a lesson on intersectionality was actually at my TFA interview. One of the other people interviewing did their sample lesson on intersectionality, meant for a high school class, and she did a really good job introducing it! Since then, I learned about it a lot during TFA’s summer institute, but still, this article about intersectionality was enlightening. I learned that in order for students to connect with content, they really need to have an idea of their own intersectionality. I think that is so interesting, because I made it through college, never thinking about my intersectionality and getting through school just fine. But that is because of the privilege that comes with being a white, cis-gendered, upper-middle-class woman who is well represented in many school curriculums in the US. My students, on the other hand, need to be able to see themselves in a greater context because it is not often that people with any of their identities are brought into the curriculum. I think the author’s main argument is that intersectionality is important for both students and teachers to understand in order to prevent further discrimination from happening in our schools.
picture from: https://beinginorbit.wordpress.com/2013/05/16/intro-to-intersectionality-and-art/
The first time I had a lesson on intersectionality was actually at my TFA interview. One of the other people interviewing did their sample lesson on intersectionality, meant for a high school class, and she did a really good job introducing it! Since then, I learned about it a lot during TFA’s summer institute, but still, this article about intersectionality was enlightening. I learned that in order for students to connect with content, they really need to have an idea of their own intersectionality. I think that is so interesting, because I made it through college, never thinking about my intersectionality and getting through school just fine. But that is because of the privilege that comes with being a white, cis-gendered, upper-middle-class woman who is well represented in many school curriculums in the US. My students, on the other hand, need to be able to see themselves in a greater context because it is not often that people with any of their identities are brought into the curriculum. I think the author’s main argument is that intersectionality is important for both students and teachers to understand in order to prevent further discrimination from happening in our schools.
Haley, Great post. I had a very similar experience to you in college and through TFA. I really appreciated how you noted your own privileges and then compared them to those of your student. More teacher need to be this reflective (myself included), to prevent the perpetuation of discrimination in schools. Also I loved your graphic at the end!! nice work.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! Similar to you, I made assumptions about the LGBTQ+ being accepted only in certain areas of the US. It can be mind-blowing and disheartening to learn otherwise. I connect to your post and I think you did a great job. And I love the final image too!
ReplyDeleteHaley, I think you have great insight into this week's readings. I think it is so important your acknowledgement of your own privilege and how you connected to previous readings that your privilege has made you somewhat in the dark about LGBTQ discrimination issues. I feel as though race discrimination is more talked about than LGBTQ discrimination issues, but it does still occur. I think it is important to understand that even though we are making progress with equality and acceptance, we still have a long way to go as a society.
ReplyDeleteHi Haley,
ReplyDeleteFirst off, I want to talk about that picture. I LOVE it. It really highlights the idea of intersectionality and runs with it in a way that makes it accessible for many. Not only does it define it, but it also gives a very simple and easy to understand example. Anyways, enough about that…I also had my first lesson during a TFA experience, which is good for me but also disappointing when looking at it from the perspective of society. Why did it take for me to be accepted into this organization for me to begin to understand this idea? Why are we not teaching this to our students starting at a younger age? These are just some of my ideas that I think about when thinking about this topic.
Isn't it interesting how you can be introduced to the same concepts -- even the save text -- and get different things from it each time? Glad that this weeks texts echoed with the work you had already done with TFA. Great points too about the LGBTQ rights issues.
ReplyDelete