Thursday, May 3, 2018

A Quick Note on "Intersectionality"

Michael Lumish

The concept is not difficult to understand. Intersectionality is a currently popular western-left political theory that dockets people onto a hierarchy of victimhood according to ethnicity and/or gender identification.

It is the most popular form of identity politics, today.

It postulates a theory of Good People versus Bad People, which is to say, oppressed versus oppressors.

The Good People, the oppressed, are "people of color" (whatever that means, exactly), the non-white poor, and the gender-disassociated.

The Bad People are "white people," particularly of the masculine variety, "Zionists" and the rich.

That, in a nutshell, is progressive-left ethnic politics in the West today. 

But what nobody discusses is the fact that this whole set-up flies directly in the face of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s admonition to judge people according to the content of their character, rather than the color of their skin.

25 comments:

  1. And this is a major part of the reason that I argue that the Left is going through a process of deliberalization.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It flies in the face of the sanctity of the individual human being. It is anti-American as well as anti-Judaic. It is contradictory to the universalism it proclaims. It is retrograde, xenophobic, and guarantees friction, strife, emotion over reason, and violence. Trudy was right in saying it used to be called a mob, or excuses.
    And the idiot Left that loosed this rubbish on us cannot hold that tiger by the tail.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Intersectionality is really just the old Jim Crow 'one drop' law in different clothes. If you are 'x' if you have one drop of 'y' then are you completely 'y'.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It is being heavily pushed at the NYCDOE. The programs for educational leaders are nearly all focused on “equity” and very little on quality of education. That “white woman’s racist rant” on the news with the new chancellor was nothing of the sort. She basically said what about the content of my child’s grades and what he’s earned vs making spots available to promote equity. So it doesn’t matter in NYC if you work hard and are a good student. You are judged by the LEFT by the color of your skin. Note the racist assumption of the left that non-whites obviously score lower. How disgusting.

    ReplyDelete
  5. All cats have tails. My lizard has a tail. Therefore my lizard is a cat.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Y'know, Trudy, I am not entirely certain if this is a criticism of me or of intersectionality or both!

      Delete
    2. I fundamentally believe that no idea is intrinsically related to any other idea. The entire notion of 'intersectionality' is a logical falsehood. It's at its core the falsehood that analogy = proof. They are unrelated in any way to one another. One is a rhetorical tool, a metaphor to highlight one aspect of something the other is an axiom that is true no matter what. One is contextual the other isn't.

      Delete
    3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtS46Wfsxnw

      Delete
  6. Thought it meant that in the greater struggle against Western power, all discrimination and oppression is connected, and because of those intersections it is necessary to support any efforts that oppose the power. Who knows, your subset may be under the gun some day and need the others, so it's best to go along.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I thought the same. Michael Lumish seems to be describing Critical Theory.

      Delete
    2. These are related concepts.

      School refers to the intersectionalist idea that "in the greater struggle against Western power, all discrimination and oppression is connected, and because of those intersections it is necessary to support any efforts that oppose the power."

      That is absolutely right.

      But what I am pointing to is just who is thought to represent "the power."

      Intersectionality defines power according to a hieararchy of victimhood with "white" men, "Zionists" and the rich as the enemy to everyone else.

      Not surprisingly the practioners of the theory - in the streets and in the academe - also tend to think of Jewish people as representing all three.

      We hit the trifecta.

      Yay for us.

      Delete
  7. And, yes, this is all related to Critical Theory and the Frankfurt School and what some call "cultural Marxism."

    ReplyDelete
  8. "Similarly there are more than 700 distinct linguistic groups in Cote d'Ivoire.

    If a bunch of Berkeley SJWs went there to lecture them about the evil white man or colonialism"

    One can only only hope they wouldn't be from the linguistics department.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Like everything that comes from the "left," intersectionality, was designed to destroy Liberalism. Think about it, remembering that the "left," is a totally different animal. Even Hillary has recently alluded to that by saying one of the reasons she lost is because so many Dems are socialists.

    Left leaning is not good enough for the far left, which of course is the main current proponent of intersectionality. Well intentioned but naive left leaners/Liberals adopt the jargon not realizing they are participating in their own demise. Thus, as always, a little knowledge becomes a dangerous thing; and, someone like Tamica Mallory, a leading proponent of intersectionality, can support and defend a racist homophobe misogynist like Farrakhan. And she's a dime dozen among would be activists. It's all a bit like herding cats.

    ReplyDelete
  10. "intersectionality" is just basically leftists whining for instant gratification.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Well the national language is French so I can't decide who's culturally appropriating who.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I barely even heard of Kanye West until a few weeks ago and then when I learned that he was associated with the Kardashians... I don't know what to make of this bullshit.

    ReplyDelete
  13. West may be some dumb celebrity, but he put his finger on something important, the ideas articulated by Candace Owens that confronts the victimhood of blacks. There is no need to be a victim if one wants to succeed.

    Not to mention the present day "victims" suffer hardly at all, yet act out their "pain" much more than the those that experienced the trauma.

    It remains to be seen what policies are put forth now that a small awakening has occurred. There are many successful blacks in society, many from dire situations. Why do they make it when others do not? How did it get this way. It looks like another example of progressive ideas not translating to the realities of human existence.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Reem's writ large:

    http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2018/05/starbucks-fights-racism-bows-to-anti.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FromNyToIsraelSultanRevealsTheStoriesBehindTheNews+%28from+NY+to+Israel+Sultan+Reveals+The+Stories+Behind+the+News%29

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. From the article:

      "The post-King era has erroneously conflated racial tribalism with civil rights. Its civil rights leaders are invariably black nationalists and that’s why they find it so hard to resist Farrakhan’s racist supremacism."

      Delete
  15. Been thinking. America needs to legalize pot and every other kind of drug as an act of compassion for those traumatized by Trump's win. An added benefit is that having them too stoned up to whine and bitch all the time would give the rest of us some needed respite.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Half in jest I used to tell my kids to tell their friends to smoke weed nonstop. It's a cold hard world out there and it takes a lot of backwards hats, brotards and stoners to pay for their scholarships. Anything they can do to thin out the competition is to be appreciated.

      PS. We put 3 kids through college and graduate school and a spouse through law school and me through grad school with no debt to me or anyone.

      Delete
  16. Obama et al, including many western countries, gave Iran billions so they could attack Israel via Syria/Hezb, etc. Trump put a stop to America's part in that today. Who's the freaking hero?Shut yer yaps Kerry, Obama and most of the main stream Israel hating media.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Ex-President Obama should be placed on trial for:

    helping to fund anti-American terrorism;
    helping America's enemies;
    and sabotaging America's allies.

    Many people have been publicly executed for
    lesser offenses against the security of America.

    ================================
    Did Captain Kirk believe in
    negotiating with terrorists?


    http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/08/can-jews-learn-from-captain-kirk.html

    ReplyDelete
  18. There's a reason why westerners don't generally chant "death to Iran." It has to do with being decent and not crazy.

    ReplyDelete