Considering all of the comments and posts on sexuality and race I’ve decided to post a modified blog post I did at my blog. It’s an excerpt from a review of The Cost of Privielge: Taking on the System of White Supremacy and Racism in the magazine Monthly Review. I find it very clarrifying during these times.
From the review by labor activist Fernando E. Gapasin:
Smith examines white supremacy using intersectionality theory, which seeks to explain the ways racism, paternalism, misogyny, and homophobia form a confluence that multiplies and intensifies class oppression while reproducing multiple forms of privilege and oppression. He also reveals much about the racial and gender tensions that exist in white left organizations in the United States. In examining various forms of oppression, Smith demonstrates how we might weave different social movements together by creating intersections of understanding through education and social practice.
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To put it simply, Smith argues that patriarchy interpenetrates with race and class. Understanding one oppression requires an awareness of all three—and the profound impact each has on people’s lives. This is not to deny that capitalism is a system founded upon the exploitation of wage labor and that working-class struggle is central to its abolition. However, the class struggle is overlaid with others and, as a matter of politics, all of the struggles are central. In any given situation, one contradiction may be primary and need the most attention, while the others are secondary. But all contribute to the unique reality of the moment. And each contradiction is central to creating a core strategic alliance among the oppressed groups and their movements. Smith believes that only such a historic bloc of forces will allow all oppressed peoples—and each such person taken individually—to feel they are included in the movement’s vision of the future. And only such a broad-based alliance could develop the moral and political strength to make an effective challenge for political power and then use it to achieve national liberation, end the class system, and carry social transformation through to the complete elimination of racism and patriarchal oppression.
As is often the case, disability is not mentioned. It is also an intersection between class and ability, most obviously in a capitalist system when those who are not in perfect health are closed out of the workforce and the health care system. Obviously, race and gender interplay, too.
I always thought that disability might be a good starting ground for the unifying of the different groups, as all races, genders and sexual orientations are included, and many are included after being nondisabled and having to transition, giving an added perspective. Also, because within the disability “label” there are 58 million kinds of disabilities.
Other minorities (esp. race groups) generally have a history of not including people with disabilities in their civil rights activities. This is unfortunate, because the disability movement could bring a lot to the general civil rights movement if given a chance.