Multiple subordinated identities compound into more than additive subordination.
Evidence
Race does not operate in a vacuum without the influence of other identity categories. Often, with the existence of multiple axes of subordination, having multiple subordinated identities results in a combination in which they become force multipliers and result in subordinations that are greater than the sum of their parts. To address this reality, most people have adopted an intersectionality approach first theorized in the context of law by Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw. In her first article on intersectionality, Professor Crenshaw demonstrated that when a plaintiff in an employment discrimination suit has the two identities of “Black” and “woman,” she seemingly disappears from legal visibility if she has Black men and white women coworkers who are not discrimated against. The Black woman plaintiff cannot make a gender claim because the employer promotes white women and cannot make a race claim because the employer promotes Black men. — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 72
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: A racial hierarchy can be vertically ordered without collapsing into a flat white-versus-Black binary — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 66; Intersectionality fails because it assumes race and gender categories stay fixed; Having multiple superordinates paradoxically increases a subordinate’s independence from each — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 5966 (+5 more)
Broader Connections
- Crossed categories reduce in-group bias and dependence on single identities
#complicates(0.80) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 530 - Identities co-create each other so no category has analytic priority
#corroborates(0.80) — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 83 - Having multiple superordinates paradoxically increases a subordinate’s independence from each
#expands(0.78) — Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simmel, 5966