Intersectionality and Systemic Oppression

Question 1

Name and explain the two models of oppression Allan Johnson talks about.

Answer 1

Individualistic model of oppression, which places the responsibility on the individual. It ignores overarching causes for human behaviours and attributes flaws to personal failure. Does not believe in structural explanations for the world, and lessens the responsibility of each person for wrongs in society
Systemic model oppression, which factors in societal factors which govern human behaviour. We live in a social system in which it is difficult for any one person to cause meaningful change

Question 2

Explain how Allan Johnson sees patriarchy as a system of power.

Answer 2

Uses rewards/punishments when you do not conform to it, and it forces values and beliefs onto you. It demands that you align yourself to its ideas. It is organized around certain kinds of relationships and ideas. It creates competition and violence.

Question 3

Provide a definition of “the path of least resistance” according to Allan Johnson.

Answer 3

People who grow up in a system and are surrounded by its ideas and values participate in the system because they cannot conceive of a different way of living. This is the path of least resistance. It is a form of social living that carries the least amount of risk. It is easiest to live this way in a system because it is how the system is designed to be lived in.

Question 4

Explain how “the path of least resistance” governs human behaviour.

Answer 4

This simply means conforming to what the social system demands of you. Obeying its norms and “fitting in” is the easiest course of action in a system, thus it is the path of least resistance.

Question 5

Explain who Emma DeGraffenreid is and what her contentions were with General Motors.

Answer 5

Her problem was that she was discriminated against. General motors hired white women and black men, but no black women. Degraffenreid was a black woman and fought against GM’s hiring practices.

Question 6

How does Crenshaw define intersectionality? Name three tenets of intersectionality we discussed in class.

Answer 6

Identity is dynamic (it is in flux, can be chosen/born into)
Accounting for both oppression and privilege (consider not just the state of the oppressed but also the oppressor, since one cannot exist without the other)
Beyond race and class (though this is still the origin)
Not a theory of identity, but an understanding of power (a person is not intersectional, they can engage in intersectional thought)