DSJSW Week Three, Post Two (Synthesis & Connection)

    Understanding intersectionality is extremely important when going into social work. It can be used as a tool to analyze complex social problems, as well as critical power dynamics that shape systems of inequality. 

    As an analytical tool, intersectionality can be used to develop strategies to achieve systemic equity, identify better frameworks to tackle the entirety of discrimination and social inequalities, and shed light on complex problems with equally complex social contexts. 

    A profound example of intersectionality and lack of education surrounding it is the difference between the attention that black men and women get when they are murdered unjustly by the police. While it is common to know the names of Michael Brown and Tamir Rice, very few people are familiar with the cases of Michelle Cusseaux and Natasha McKenna. This is because when facts don't fit into established frames, people struggle to (or neglect to) incorporate them into their line of thinking. Too often, people view issues as race or gendered  as opposed to sometimes being both. This is extremely harmful because when trying to use a trickledown approach to social justice doesn't work. Furthermore, this lack of understanding of intersectionality can lead to lack of assistance and death, and that is why women who are living while black are constantly in danger. 

    However, there are also critiques of intersectionality. These include the idea that intersectionality tends to overuse personal identity as a category of analysis, overemphasis on fixed or "essential" group identities, focusing on the "wrong kind" of identity, or the fostering of victimhood politics. 

    Paulo Frieire (1970), in the piece "Peolagogy of the Oppressed", positions education as a force that can empower and disenfranchise vulnerable groups, enhance and suppress social justice work and initiatives, and deepen or limit collective understanding of social justice. Ed-Dee Williams, a doctorate student at the University of Michigan, finds that young black boys suffering from mental illness are the best example of how education has underserve communities. Because of the stereotypes surrounding black boys as aggressive and loud, there can we a decrease in diagnosis of other issues children maybe suffering from that would cause them to act out. Furthermore, because of the stigma surrounding mental illness in the black community that isn't as prevalent in white communities, black children are often denied services and the help that they need.