in·ter·sec·tion·al·i·ty
noun
1.
(Google) the interconnected nature of social
categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given
individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent
systems of discrimination or disadvantage.
"through an awareness of
intersectionality, we can better acknowledge and ground the differences among
us"
2.
(The 3rd Rail) a strategy to
forestall the inevitable result of identity politics: where the various groups
bestowed with victim status (i.e., all except heterosexual white males)
eventually devour one another in a vicious circle of victimization
one-upmanship.
“Intersectionality”
is the most recent of the linguistic constructions employed by the Left to
advance their political agenda. It comes from a virulent pedigree, with
“diversity,” “multiculturalism,” and “inclusion” among the most notable of its
ancestry. The first two achieved “holy word” stature sometime during the last
decades of the twentieth century; “inclusion” more recently.
They
all serve the same purpose: to diminish and denigrate the predominance of Western
European culture and history in the Brave New World of “progressivism,” and to
demonize heterosexual white men.
World
history is deconstructed to reveal that the influence of Western European
civilization on the world’s other peoples has been one of exploitation and
subjugation. Furthermore, its cultural values, evolved from the Greco-Roman
world through the Renaissance to the Age of Enlightenment and beyond to the
present, are all poisoned by their original sin, and must be rejected.
This
is why to earn a bachelor’s degree in English Literature at UCLA you must takes
courses in Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Disability or Sexuality Studies, Imperial
Transnational or Post-Colonial Studies, and Critical Theory—and are not required to take a single course in
Shakespeare. The goal of the program is to expose students, according to the
course catalog, to “alternative rubrics of gender, sexuality, race, and class.”*
It
shouldn’t need to be stated that UCLA is hardly an outlier, or an insignificant
college. Such academic “rubrics” are now the new norm throughout the academy.
* * *
Identity
politics requires people to classify themselves first as a member of a victim
group, and as an individual second. From their membership in their particular
victim group (or groups), they are programmed to see political and social
issues all through the lens of the group. It is ironic that this new paradigm
is the reversal of the ideation from the Civil Rights movement championed by
MLK. His plea was that he would see a future when people were judged by the
content of their character, not the color of their skin. This is the antithesis
of identity politics.
Intersectionality
encourages its stakeholders to set aside any internecine conflicts that may
arise around a particular issue, for example the outrage from some quarters of
feminism wishing to exclude transgender women (that is men who have been
surgically altered to mimic a female) from their latest protest. It must be
quite a conundrum for them.
In
the absence of the overarching unifying principle of intersectionality, these
two victim groups would be at each other’s throats (and actually, they are).
But intersectionality reminds them that they share a common bond: the identity
of their oppressors. Feminists are oppressed by men, and transgenders are
oppressed by “heteronormism.” The intersection of which is ... wait for it ... straight men.
Recognizing
their shared victimhood, victim groups should table their differences on
whatever current matter is in contention, in service of the higher truth. Never
forget who the ultimate enemy is: the straight
white male.
* * *
As
the 3rd Rail’s definition states, “... a strategy to forestall the inevitable result
...”
The
balkanization of the Left into its ever-growing number of victim classes and
their petty rivalries must inevitably devour itself. Even with shrewd
strategies like “intersectionality,” the inherent nihilism, toxicity and hatred
of the Left will consume it. As sixties’ radical Abbie Hoffman once intoned
about a different “enemy”:
“The system will collapse under its own
weight. Our job is to give it a few kicks and stay high.”
I
don’t recommend the drugs inference, but I love the sentiment!
*Who
Killed the Liberal Arts?” Heather Macdonald, Prager University video lecture
Copyright © 2018 Marcus Clintonius
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