Some interpretations of intersectionality lead people to see every interaction through a morality of privilege and oppression
There are some interpretations of intersectionality teach people to see bipolar dimensions of privilege and oppression as ubiquitous in social interactions. In an essay describing her approach, Kathryn Pauly Morgan explains that a particular individual can be represented as living at the “intersection” of many dimensions of power and privilege by being placed at the center point of a series of axes; the person might be high or low on any of the axes. She defines her terms like this: “Privilege involves the power to dominate in systematic ways. … Oppression involves the lived, systematic experience of being dominated by virtue of one’s position on various particular axes.” Morgan argues that each of us occupies a point “on each of these axes (at a minimum) and that this point is simultaneously a locus of our agency, power, disempowerment, oppression, and resistance. The [endpoints] represent maximum privilege or extreme oppression with respect to a particular axis.” Since “privilege” is defined as the “power to dominate” and to cause “oppression,” these axes are inherently moral dimensions. This creates a kind of Slave Morality in which the people on top are bad, and the people below the line are good. This sort of teaching seems likely to instill the notion that life is a battle between good people and evil people.
References
- Lukianoff, Greg. Haidt, Jonathan. (2019). The Coddling of the American Mind Chapter 3 The Untruth of Us Versus Them Life is a Battle Between Good People and Evil People (Epub p. 96). New York, NY: Penguin Random House.
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