Alyssa Lee on Burnham

In the reading, Linda Burnham mentions multiple times that Black women’s femaleness and blackness were indivisible. Thus, it is impossible to analyze a Black woman’s experiences without considering her gender or race.

Because of Burnham is a Black woman activist, her views on this may be more well rounded than most. This is because there are so many examples of women choosing their race over their gender, especially in the political and cultural climate we are in. One example could be the long accusations against Bill Cosby in 2014. This a good example because I read many articles coming from black women saying that this is just the system targeting another black man. This lead me to question what side of the story these black women believed about the Harvey Weinstein attacks and if they were on the victims’ or Harvey’s side.

Another example would be that a majority of White women did vote for Trump in 2016. Also because of the time period that Burnham grew up in and was extremely active in developed her black and white perspective on how gender and race are indivisible. This is because it lead me to question: is truly possible to consider both equally in all situations? I also wondered if all Black women, or even all women of color, felt this way about their gender and race. Some cultures are more misogynistic and patriarchal than others, so are the women choosing to abide by these cultures traditions not considering their gender placement whatsoever?

Overall, I’m quite indifferent about Burnham’s idea about gender and race being indivisible to analyze experiences. Because she is a well rounded activist, I feel that her development of this theory is better stated and more well rounded than other women participating in these movements. On one hand, I completely agree with her statement that some experiences can only be analyzed utilizing both race and gender. For example in the movement to get more Asian actors on screen in America, a lot of Asian women speak about how they want roles where they are not sexualized for being Asian. But on the other hand, I also find that some people will choose their culture or gender over the other and it just strains their personal relationships.

In class, I would like to further discuss how the theory of intersectionality started within movements and became one of academia. I think this would be great to discuss further because of the impact intersectionality has on all of us. After reading this piece, I wondered if intersectionality would be more well known if it had stayed at the activists' level.