{"id":712,"date":"2016-10-24T14:37:16","date_gmt":"2016-10-24T18:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.presbyterianmission.org\/food-faith\/?p=712"},"modified":"2021-01-30T12:55:16","modified_gmt":"2021-01-30T17:55:16","slug":"the-intersectional-revolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centernet.pcusa.org\/food-faith\/2016\/10\/24\/the-intersectional-revolution\/","title":{"rendered":"The Intersectional R,EVOL,ution"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Revolution <\/em><\/strong>Comments from Andrew Kang Bartlett, Presbyterian Hunger Program, at the<\/em> Spirit of the Harvest Festival <\/em><\/strong>on<\/em> October 20, 2016 in Sebastopol, CA, sponsored by the Interfaith Sustainable Food Collaborative<\/a>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

“<\/em>It\u2019s an honor to be with you. And it\u2019s great to be here in California where I lived for 13 years before moving to Louisville KY in 2001. I don\u2019t do much public speaking, but I would like to share some words with you.<\/p>\n

I just left the farmworkers in Washington state and I have an update, but I\u2019d first like to talk about intersectionality and revolution. Last week, my colleague at the Presbyterian Hunger Program, Jennifer, a young African-American mom, wore a T-shirt to work.<\/p>\n

\"womanJennifer is shy so I didn\u2019t get a picture of it, but similar to this one it said:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Revolution Will Be Intersectional.\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n

What does this mean to you?\u00a0 What does this mean to us in 2016?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Revolution Will Be Intersectional.\u201d<\/p>\n

Can I see a show of hands? Raise your hand if you\u2019ve heard the term intersectionality<\/em> in the last year?<\/p>\n

\"sojourner<\/em><\/strong>The concept of intersectionality goes way back, and certainly as far back as Sojourner Truth\u2019s famous speech in 1851 \u201cAin\u2019t I a Woman?.\u201d But intersectional as a word was first coined in 1989 by Kimberl\u00e9 Crenshaw.
\nCrenshaw and others used this idea of intersectionality as a foundational linchpin for revisionist feminist theory, which looked at the intersection<\/em> of gender<\/u> and color<\/u>, in particular how black women were discriminated against in ways that were unique because of dual or multiple identities. Intersectional thinkers recognized that the forms of oppression experienced by white middle-class women were different from those experienced by black, poor, or disabled women.<\/p>\n

Simply put, when aspects of an individual or a people\u2019s identity is not considered, they will not be fully understood, AND the full array of obstacles they face will not be addressed.<\/p>\n

The Revolution Will Be \"revolution<\/em>Intersectional<\/strong>\u2026Often added to this<\/em> — or It Won\u2019t Be My Revolution<\/strong><\/p>\n

Firstly, we will be having a revolution. Given our unsustainable and often cruelly unjust systems, it is coming and it will be either reactive and violent, or it will be fomented by great organizing, alliance building and people power. But \u201cit won\u2019t be my revolution\u201d if it is single focused \u2013 on violence or on race or on class alone \u2013 and it fails to recognize the fullness of who I am.<\/p>\n

Today, intersectionality has become a popular term, perhaps especially among feminists and LGBTQ people of color. As I understand it, what this means is that oppression is holistic. Oppressions within society, such as racism<\/a>, sexism<\/a>, classism<\/a>, ableism<\/a>, homophobia<\/a>, , xenophobia<\/a> and bigotry<\/a>\u2014do not act independently of each other. Instead, these forms of oppression interrelate and create a system of oppression that reflects the “intersection<\/em>” of multiple forms of discrimination.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\"Definition<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Why does that matter? Because when we look around, black and brown men and women, the mentally disturbed, gay and trans people, and other non-white, non-straight, non-male people are locked up, dying young, and are being killed in the streets of modern day America. These deaths and the racist, anti-immigrant, xenophobic rhetoric gushing from the mouths of certain candidates and politicians remind us that racism and other isms are alive and well in the behavior of hateful people and in the subconscious thoughts of well-intentioned people like you and me. Then<\/strong> on top of this, we are facing huge economic, environmental and climate crises all at the same time.<\/p>\n

Given all<\/strong> this, it takes real courage to pull ourselves away from Netflix series and kitten videos and to live out what it means to be a person of faith.\u00a0 Believe me, I know this from personal experience. The problems are so<\/strong> big, \u2026 and not only must we change the systems themselves, but we know we must change the thinking that created the systems. Starting with you and me, we must unshackle our minds.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, our Abrahamic faiths are all about liberation. We are instructed to break the yoke of oppression!<\/p>\n

As Christians, Jews, and Muslims, we are in the freedom business. It all comes down to liberation, because until you are free, I cannot be free. And until we are all free, we can never love as Jesus loved.<\/p>\n

Unconditional love is our destination. On earth as it is in heaven. With love as our destination, our journey is fueled by liberation. Liberation from fear. Liberation from want. Liberation from injustice and exploitation. Liberation from greed and prejudice. Liberation from a fallacious world view of me versus other, of us versus them, of human versus nature. The freedom to unconditionally love self, neighbor and God.<\/p>\n

While the term isn\u2019t 2000 years old, I would contend that the ministry of Jesus Christ was intersectional. Intersectionality would come naturally to a man of his social position \u2013 chased from the day he was born by a king who wanted him dead, conceived to an unmarried young mother, born in a stable in Nazareth of all places.<\/p>\n

To paraphrase the actor John Fugelsang \u2013 Jesus was a radical, nonviolent revolutionary who hung around with lepers, prostitutes, and crooks. He wasn’t American, didn\u2019t speak English; was anti-wealth, anti-death penalty, anti-public prayer (Matthew 6:5); he never called the poor lazy, never justified torture, never fought for tax cuts for the wealthiest Nazarenes, never asked a leper for a copay; and was a long-haired brown-skinned homeless community-organizing Middle Eastern Jew.<\/p>\n

In his stories, throughout his life, and in who he chose as companions and fellow leaders, Jesus intentionally included orphans, Samaritans, widows, disabled persons, the criminal he was crucified with, and of course the poor.<\/p>\n