Intersectionality

 "I (Paul) pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling." Ephesians 1:18

  The Oxford dictionary defines intersectionality as the following: The interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class and gender, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage." 

  Clear as mud. Except the other morning I was up earlier than normal. 

  A dead ash tree towers above my neighbor's yard. Bleached and skeletal branches seem to touch the sky. Three birds had perched high in its branches to catch the first warming rays of the sun. A robin trilled his wake up call to everyone. A Mourning Dove grumbled about the early rise. The third member of the trio was a tiny Goldfinch, dressed in brilliant yellow livery, who trilled his welcome to the day. It was a chorus fit for the grandest stage in the grandest city in all the world.

  The three birds sang for a long time. None was threatened or angry about the other bird sitting so close. I wished...I wished people could be more like them.

  I thought about the birds, how each is unique and beautiful in their own way. I thought about the tree as being the source of what brings them together. They didn't fight over it. Each bird had found a place uniquely suited to their size because a Dove could never sit where a Goldfinch can!

  

  Intersectionality...The three songbirds have many disadvantages in common despite their differences in appearance and size. They are prey for cats or foxes. There are bigger birds in the sky who will kill them. Their offspring are extremely vulnerable until they can fly. Weather and the elements can be lethal to adults and chicks alike. 

  

  I am trying to understand a very complicated social construct created by discrimination in all its forms. As an English speaking, educated, white person in North America I have distinct advantages or privileges based solely on these things. In fact, I got these things with very few or no obstacles because I was white.

  However, as a woman with a disability I have also been subjected to discrimination and prejudice solely because of these things. I can't change the obvious signs of my gender but I am able to hide my disability so most people don't even know about it. (Officially, it's called "Passing.") However, I hear what is said about those of us with these sorts of challenges all the time.

  Intersectionality is when there is cross over discrimination between various areas of prejudice. It's the dead ash tree connecting everything.

  My dead ash tree is the culture I was raised in which taught me there was a hierarchy of gender and skin color. I am trying to cut the thing down. Much of it has already fallen thanks to Jesus but I will be the first to admit, I have a long way to go and a great deal to learn.

  I have been challenged to fight racism by the racially oppressed. Yet, how do I fight something that has been part of human nature since the Neanderthals were wiped off the face of the earth by humankind as we know it? How do I fight something that set tribe against tribe? Culture against culture? Religion against religion? How do I fight something the devil has forged in the human heart for generation upon generation? How do I prevent this generation from teaching the next ones to hate?

  Maybe I need to sit in someone else's tree for a while. Maybe I need to invite them to sit in mine. Maybe we can find a common enemy then. Maybe then we can work together to change how we view ourselves and each other based on the lies we have learned.

  Maybe...