PART 1:
Readings:
Crenshaw, K. (1990) Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Colour.
The first text I read was ‘Mapping the margins: intersectionality, identity politics and violence against Women of Colour’, which I found very engaging. I myself am an avid feminist and spend my free time in conversation with the black women in my family, having discussions on feminism and race.
As a white woman in a place of privilege, I found Crenshaw’s mapping of the three dimensions of intersectionality to be an important and very informative insight into the world we occupy and how it’s built the oppression of POC into it’s very foundations. I don’t feel I have much substance to add to this conversation without centering a white voice, something I fear western feminism has done enough of, and I feel the appropriate response to a text like this is to absorb the information and allow its structures to settle into my worldview naturally.
My main takeaway is that I agree that the entire capitalist system is built out of exploitation and asserting white male dominance; it’s something we must address and acknowledge if we ever want to build a stronger community. I appreciate Crenshaw breaking these systems down and categorizing them into a clear and legible set of dimensions, communication is key to disseminating ideas and political theory.
Lukkien, Chauhan, and Otaye-Ebede (2024) article, “Addressing the diversity principle–practice gap in Western higher education institutions: A systematic review on intersectionality”
This piece is highly informative and an important article that I feel all institutions (not just HEI and academia) should be well acquainted with, it speaks to the realities and real world implementation of EDI in the work place and how to have tangible effects on marginalised staff and their intersectional needs and not just to have preformative ‘all lives matter!’ virtue signalling.
To actually walk the walk there needs to be actual systemic and structural policies and practices amungst the higger ups and HR and not simple token guestres or repeated phases. For example, I felt reminded of a time I mentioned to another staff member that I hoped to be pregnant in the next 5 years to which they responded, ‘Don’t tell them that!’ and reinforced the idea that women in the workplace that become pregnant are a burden on the faculty and could well be let go.
To be accepted and seen as what we are in the workplace, there needs to be a meaningful conversation about how to include marginalised people, not just accepting them when they’re mimicking the white cis male aesthetic.
Videos:
Kimberlé Crenshaw at the National Urban League Demand Diversity Emergency Session on DEI:
I’m so glad to be being introduced to Crenshaws speaking, in this video she discusses the eternal question amongst activists which is; how do we respond? The idea is deeply instilled in the West that any reaction at all is destructive, and yet what do you do when your house is on fire? Politely ask the fire to leave, and when it ignores you, you stand back in fear of respectability politics? Everybody cites Gandhi’s peaceful protest against the British, yet we fear to bring up the Romanovs, for those in more dire need being asked to be polite is akin to asking them to die quietly.
Intersectionality – A Look At Race, Gender & Class:
An informative video that brings to light the differences of how we walk through life and how we’re perceived by others. I think about how dire the consequences of how we’re perceived can be, my grandmother was perceived by the Nazis as a sub human, yet when she went to America on holiday she was seen as ‘White’, a new concept to her at that time (1970s). How you’re seen by others will dictate you’re entire lived experience, which is why it must be taken so seriously when we dissect our internal biases.
PART 2
Readings:
“Positionality: The Interplay of Space, Context and Identity” by Rebecca Y. Bayeck (2022):
The idea that our identities are static, ‘woman’ ‘black’ ‘muslim’, betrays the constant fluid nature of not only our innerselves but how the world reacts to us, you’re always displaying various cultural and class signifiers that only certain others will understand and respond to, for example a white woman with a southern american accent will be read differently in academia to a white woman with a RP pronunciation, micro aggressions and privileges can start to stack up. The transition of who we are is always changing and moving, similar to language.
One must be considerate to who we are and what we are at each table that we sit at, but mostly for our own sake. It’s important to understand how a simple cultural signifier can dictate our safety or how your race may be perceived by others. In the current climate, being anything other than a cis white man is considered political, forcing marginalised people to be on guard or wary, even in HEI spaces. Within the gaming community, there is a meme; the character has two genders, white man or politcal.
Schiffer, A. (2020), Issues of Power and Representation: Adapting Positionality and Reflexivity in Community-Based Design
I was feeling confident with the reading until I came across this article. The way ‘design’ is used had me a touch confused and feeling slightly divorced from the writing. Even after reading it, I’m not confident I understand. I’ll respond literally, but I’m sure I’m missing some vital context here.
Only very recently are we designing anything for the marginalised people in our society. Within the past 5 years, companies only just started being legally required to display their ingredients on pre-packaged food, something critical for many disabled or allergy-affected people. Still, the number of tube stations in London that aren’t accessible is unacceptably low; even the gaps at the platforms aren’t addressed in a meaningful capacity, leaving many crutch or wheelchair users at a loss. We’re a long way away from our design being at an acceptable level
Video:
Positionality with Tara Million
A great resource for teachers to understand positionality in a simple context.
What is positionality?
I really appreciate how she explained that positionality is a forever ongoing internal process; you’re never really ‘done’ self-examining yourself and your biases nor should you aim to be, you must always take time and hold internal space for challenging ideas that can disrupt your ideas of who you are and what you find ethical.
I also agreed with her take on positionality not being an end point where you can only research and investigate yourself, which is limiting in the long run. It’s a good challenge to open yourself and your ideas to new areas of understanding, and that can only be done if we leave the bubbles we already exist in.
Positionality statement:
My posistionality statement going into this PGcert Unit;
I’m a white, middle-class British-Polish cis woman who is in a long-term relationship with a white Welsh working-class cis man. I’m a passionate feminist, and I frequently engage in feminist discussions both at talks and online. My scope of understanding toward black feminist theory is naturally limited; however, I have taken the active approach to not be combative and take on a listening and reflective role. I’m not disabled, nor am I financially struggling, and I hope in this unit to come to understand how to better approach and accommodate for my growing diverse student body and translate my activism and politics into a intersectional and more broad manner.
Part 3
Reading:
Malcolm, F. (2020). Silencing and Freedom of Speech in UK Higher Education. British Educational Research Journal
Freedom of speech is always a tricky subject, as it can’t ever truly exist. We, as a society, attempt to agree with a general idea and then grant it that label. For example, I should not be, and am not, free to declare “I have a bomb in my bag” at an airport and then act aghast when my bags are inspected. Freedom of speech cannot mean freedom of repercussion,
I go by the mantra ‘Your freedom to swing your fists ends where my nose begins’, I think we must center the idea of freedom of speech however as our society is always in a state of flux we can so easily slip into authoritarianism and well meaning people can be punished for a temporary social stigma.
Being vigilant and comfortable with challenging ideas must always be a priority in HEI spaces; if not safe there, then where?
Video:
فریادی برای آزادی Josette Bushell Mingo| A Call For Freedom
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