10 Intersectionality and Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women, Girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+
Calum McCracken
Table of Contents
Introduction
In “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color,” the concept of intersectionality stands as Kimberlé Crenshaw’s essential contribution to the field of identity politics. Crenshaw introduces this term to illustrate the danger of traditional identity groupings. As an example, Crenshaw turns the reader’s attention to the complexity of inhabiting multiple categories at the same time. Intersectionality, then, seeks to introduce an ethical/political pragmatics of identity, treating multiple identity categories — such as black and female — conjunctively rather than disjunctively. The resulting approach promises to improve our understanding of social location, which is when a person expresses their existence within the given social fabric shaped by a combination of factors or attributes, such as gender, race, age, sexual orientation, and class (Crenshaw 2013).
Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls explores how violence suffuses into the lived experiences of Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ individuals. The report emphasizes the need for a more holistic understanding of human security, addressing the numerous sources of precarity that impede access to safety for these populations including, intergenerational trauma, socioeconomic marginalization, social alienation, institutional neglect, criminalization, incarceration, and sexual exploitation, to name just a few. Importantly, it is argued that the basic lack of institutional will to enhance protections for Indigenous women and girls, is symptomatic of a latent settler-colonial practice that ignores, normalizes, and erases violence visited upon colonized bodies (National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls 2019).
The In Plain Sight: Addressing Indigenous-specific Racism and Discrimination in BC Healthcare report emphasizes the need for systemic changes to ensure equitable health care experiences for all Indigenous populations. Led by the Metis Nation of British Columbia, the document’s findings identify an abiding intolerance among health care employees against Indigenous and Metis individuals. In response, the report emphasizes the need to “embed Indigenous cultural safety, the practice of cultural humility, and anti-racism expectations into the core quality, accountability, and planning functions of the B.C. health care system” (50). Importantly, this report foregrounds how poor health outcomes experienced by Indigenous and Metis populations arise from a colonial pedigree, informing the structural inequalities observed in the healthcare system today (Turpel-Lafond 2021).
Links to the Material
- “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color” by Kimberlé Crenshaw (2013)
- Reclaiming Power and Place: the Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (Chapters 7 and 8) by the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (2019)
- In Plain Sight: Addressing Indigenous-specific Racism and Discrimination in BC Healthcare by Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond (2021)
Discussion Questions
- Why does Crenshaw argue for an intersectional approach to understanding the experiences of woman of colour in cases of violence?
- Within the context of the experiences of women of colour, what key concepts does Crenshaw introduce regarding identity politics and its limitations?
- What methods does Crenshaw advocate for in order to better address violence against women of colour within the intersections of race, gender, and class?
- In what ways can intersectionality be better understood — within the context of this chapter — to promote safety and security for Indigenous populations?
- What are some practical steps that can be taken to promote inter-jurisdictional cooperation and enhance safety measures for Indigenous individuals?
- How can communities work together to enhance human security and ensure the safety of Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ individuals?
- What steps can be taken to ensure a more inclusive approach to justice that accounts for the intergenerational trauma, social marginalization, and institutional neglect faced by these communities?
- How should the violent paternalism associated with colonization impact the assessment of violence faced by Indigenous women and girls?
- In what ways does the report emphasize the need for intentional and authentic representation of Indigenous communities in provincial and regional health care policies and strategies?
- How does the report address the historical legacy of colonialism and its impact on current health care disparities faced by Indigenous peoples in BC?
- How does the report connect the importance of recognizing and implementing the Indigenous right to health, as articulated in United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to combat racism and achieve substantiative equality in healthcare outcomes?
- What role can intersectionality theory play in fostering culturally safe environments within the healthcare sector, pursuant to the recommendations provided in the report?
Thought Experiments
- Scenario
- Picture a courtroom. Five black female autoworkers are suing General Motors (GM) for workplace discrimination. This scenario closely mirrors the real case of DeGraffenreid v. General Motors (1976).
- Historical Context
- In DeGraffenreid v. General Motors, the plaintiffs alleged that GM’s seniority system perpetuated past discrimination, disproportionality affecting black women. The court, however, found no race or gender discrimination, noting that GM employed both black male factory workers and white female office workers.
- Conceptual Analysis
- The court’s ruling to consider intersectionality — a concept coined by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw, which describes how overlapping social identities, particularly minority identities, can lead to unique experiences of discrimination. [Incomplete sentence/thought] Intersectionality highlights that the discrimination faced by individuals cannot always be understood through a single lens of identity.
- Plaintiffs Perspective
- The five black female autoworkers experienced discrimination that was not solely based on race or gender but was a result of the intersection of both identities. They faced unique prejudices and challenges in the workplace that neither black men nor white women experienced.
- Court Decision
- The court stated the plaintiffs could not “combine statutory remedies” for race and gender discrimination. The five auto workers were essentially told to choose between being black or being a woman. What the ruling failed to consider was the unique prejudices the plaintiffs faced for being black and female. In reality, their experience of discrimination was shaped by the intersection of both identities.
- Broader Implications
- By acknowledging the unique challenges faced by individuals at the intersection of multiple identities, we can work towards more comprehensive and just solutions to discrimination and misrecognition.
Further Reading
Feminist Perspectives on Power (of particular importance is section 3.4 Intersectional Approaches) by Amy Allen (2022)
Bibliography
Allen, Amy. 2022. “Feminist Perspectives on Power.” Edited by Edward N. Zalta and Uri Nodelman. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2022/entries/feminist-power/.
DeGraffenreid v. General Motors Assembly Division, 413 F. Supp. 142 (E.D. Mo. 1976).
Crenshaw, K. W. 2013. “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color.” In The Public Nature of Private Violence: Women and the Discovery of Abuse, edited by Martha Albertson Fineman, 93-118. n.p.:Routledge.
National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. 2019. Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Canada. [Web Archive] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/lcwaN0028038/.
Turpel-Lafond (Aki-Kwe), Mary Ellen and Harmony Johnson (Sɛƛakəs). 2021. “In Plain Sight: Addressing Indigenous-specific Racism and Discrimination in BC Health Care.” BC Studies, no. 209 (2021): 7-17. https://doi.org/10.14288/BCS.VI209.195283.
How to Cite This Page
McCracken, Calum. 2024. “Intersectionality and Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women, Girls and 2SLGBTQQIA.” In Introduction to Ethics, edited by Jenna Woodrow, Hunter Aiken, and Calum McCracken. Kamloops, BC: TRU Open Press. https://introductiontoethics.pressbooks.tru.ca/chapter/intersectionality-and-murdered-and-missing-indigenous-women-girls-and-2slgbtqqia/.
