**acknowledging that identities co-exist and affect each other is not divisive.** what is the alternative? ignoring that people have complex identities? we don't get to make people choose which of their identities are more significant because all of them matter. it is not one or the other. people who fall into the minority in various ways do not get the luxury of separating them, a woman of colour will have a different experience than man of colour or white woman because she has [sexism and racism working against her simultaneously.](https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/what-is-intersectionality-and-why-is-it-important) this isn't to say everyone's experiences are not valid at all, rather to be aware of how some identities intersect in ways that shape an individual's experience in unique ways. there are nuances that make being in more than one marginalised groups complicated. we'll never change if we simplify social issues to be palatable - for example, black trans women are some of the most oppressed in society. we can't just pretend that doesn't exist. they are not black, trans and women. they are black trans women. there is a difference and it matters. they experience all of these things at once and have overlapping experiences and challenges. the [intersectional](https://www.womankind.org.uk/intersectionality-101-what-is-it-and-why-is-it-important/) lens is not divisive, it is essential to understanding how people's experiences differ on a hollistic level. there is nothing wrong with understanding that, contrary to what the media considers representation (e.g. a singular character who is of one minority group) , many people are marginalised and oppressed in a multitude of ways.

The Oxford Dictionary defines [intersectionality](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersectionality) as “the interconnected nature of social categorisations such as race, class, and gender, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage”. In simple words, intersectionality is the acknowledgement that everyone has their own unique experiences of discrimination based, and we must consider this to achieve equality. This [Womankind article](https://www.womankind.org.uk/intersectionality-101-what-is-it-and-why-is-it-important/) explains intersectionality and why it is important. For example, 44% of lesbian women experience intimate partner violence, compared to 35% of heterosexual women. Moreover, women with disabilities are 2 to 4 times more likely to experience domestic violence than women without disabilities. Without intersectionality, our efforts to tackle social injustice towards women are likely to just end up perpetuating systems of inequalities. We need to recognise that “woman” is not a stand-alone category, and any feminism that only represents experiences of white, middle-class women is failing to achieve this universal equality.

**Intersectionality does not 'divide' us in terms of introducing anything that isn't already present. As a theoretical framework, it just draws attention to the nuances of identity politics.** - Intersectionality = ['a framework for understanding how aspects of a person's social and political identities combine to create different modes of discrimination and privilege'] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersectionality#:~:text=Intersectionality%20is%20an%20analytical%20framework,Kimberl%C3%A9%20Williams%20Crenshaw%20in%201989.). It was [coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw] (https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/5/20/18542843/intersectionality-conservatism-law-race-gender-discrimination), whose aim was to ["demolish racial hierarchies"] (https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/5/20/18542843/intersectionality-conservatism-law-race-gender-discrimination) by calling out the nuances of intersecting discriminations. Crenshaw wanted to draw attention to the way these intersecting biases underlie entire socio-economic structures. - In her [essay on the subject] (https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1052&context=uclf), she talked about the state of black womanhood - how, in ["treating black women as purely women or purely black,"] (https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/5/20/18542843/intersectionality-conservatism-law-race-gender-discrimination) we ["ignore specific challenges that face black women as a group"] (https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/5/20/18542843/intersectionality-conservatism-law-race-gender-discrimination). So intersectional feminism acknowledges that a black woman's experience of the world will be different from that of a white woman. - Misconceptions of intersectionality can be - that it means minorities get some kind of special treatment, or that it is something like an oppression-olympics. But really, it just looks at the already-present nuances that overlap between different forms of social/political oppression. It also asks any attempt to address just one form of oppression - like racism, sexism, antisemitism, etc. - to take the others into account too. - As a concept, intersectionality is something that is pretty much indisputable. The view that it is divisive feels like a movement towards inaction & to leaving the socio-economic hierarchy in its current state of inequality. Lack of acknowledgement = lack of having to take accountability.

Intersectionality is tribalism. The entire goal is to divide and conquer. It's goal was to divide up society into social groups then give power to the groups it favors so they could conquer the social group they see as currently dominant. Why would it do anything else but what it is designed to do?