On making intersectionality a study for our time

Editor’s note: Just started in November 2023, this article will be further developed. It is a key reference for the homepage: https://81018.com/esg-dei/ and for https://81018.com/blackrock/ and https://81018.com/crenshaw/ plus https://81018.com/esg/ as well as https://81018.com/dei/ (and many more into the near future).

The Definitions and Meanings of a Word. Language is language. It is dynamic. It changes, but there is a limit to change most often determined by usage. The word, intersectionality, could mean many things. The root of the word, intersection, is defined: (1) a group of items that belong to two different sets; (2) a place where two or more roads cross. Add the suffix, –ality, indicates, having the properties of. Consider words like able (ability), banal (banality), capable (capability), person (personality), sexual (sexuality) and universe (universality).

Let us engage both definitions of the intersection.

Intersectionality (human scale) of Kimberlé Crenshaw. A compilation of Wikipedia’s analysis:

The term intersectionality was coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989. She describes how interlocking systems of power affect those who are most marginalized in society. Activists use the framework to promote social and political egalitarianism. Intersectionality does not treat each layer of oppression in isolation. Within Crenshaw’s framework, discrimination against black women cannot be explained simply as a combination of misogyny and racism; for her, it is something more layered and complicated.

For more, see Brittney Cooper, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199328581.013.20, pp 385–406, August 6, 2015; power, marginalized, social equity, egalitarianism, misogyny, triple oppression

Those words, interlocking systems of power, may well be scale invariant. Human intersectionality defined by Crenshaw focuses on types of oppression of a person. She considers the following properties of a person: (1) poor, (2) immigrant, (3) woman, (4) woman of color, (5) disability. Of course, that list could readily go on with more detailed properties of a person. One would guess that triviality is the limit. Yet, where are the bigger concepts like education, imagination, ethics, and so on?

In the opening paragraph of this article, the Abstract, limits of intersectionality are suggested. First, there is an infinite intersectionality, the connection with the finite to all things, everywhere throughout all time. It would seem that there is a rather unique pathway for everything. Then, there is the most finite intersectionality that everything shares of a most-simple, infinitesimal sphere whereby the intersectionality comes within the definition of pi (π) as continuity-symmetry-harmony. Both stretch the limits of imagination. Here, intersectionality is not a thing but processes, dynamics, and equations.

In the middle of those extremes is human intersectionality. There will be purists who will want to adhere to Crenshaw’s definition. Then, there will be others who will want to explore every possible variegation of the word.

To stretch the analogy of human intersectionality, might it be viewed (metaphorically now), as a dynamic intersection of roadways for automobiles? Might you be familiar with the world’s most heavily-traveled circle around the Arc de Triomphe at the top of the Champs-Élysées in Paris. There are no less than twelve spokes or roadways coming in and out from that large circle. Each spoke shares similar properties with the others but each has its uniqueness. Each has its own purpose, colors, functions, raison d’etre. Might each also be considered a conversion zone or layer. If we involve the car and its occupants, there are psychological and philosophical profiles — acting as decision trees. Drivers and passengers at any given moment in time are involved. That is happening today and it is one of the most difficult places on earth to navigate.

Now, let’s imagine a future scenario when there are exits into tunnels to the Périphérique (a beltway around the city), the Charles de Gaulle airport, the nine major train stations, and others to extensive parking structures with direct access to the city’s underground Metropolitan subway system. That kind of complexity would challenge the best of us.

Now imagine that complexity at the 202 intersections that define life and functionalities going smaller or larger using base-2 (multiplying or dividing by 2). That is a real reality waiting for deeper functional analyses.

These are important possibilities to further define the word, intersectionality by considering those interlocking systems of power that participate on every scale that define our universe. The observed human scale is within Notation-202. That is today. That is the Now. There is also “the known human scale” between Notations 67-and-134. We actively experience several time scales — seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years –each defines a face of our time. Although there are 26 time scales for which we have names, there are a total of 202 spatial notations where our Janus-faced time scales are actively defining the universe together.

Intersectionality at the largest scale: The bridge between the finite and infinite is defined by no less than 26 dimensionless constants, There are hundreds and hundreds of such constants! And, there are qualities (manifestations of continuity, symmetry and harmony). We are considering where the first notation is the oldest notation. These first notations of the universe, we all share. Then we share them further through our learning and shared knowledge.

We first learn the names of planets of our solar system, then of stars and galaxies, reaching out to the rest of the universe. There is unrealized power in such knowingness. More to come…

Intersectionality at the smallest scale. We all share the smallest scale of the universe more so than we can imagine. Here, too, is unrealized power within these systems. We learn to transcend any and all forms of oppression. We become independent thinkers and leaders. More to come…

Intersectionality at every scale. We will be further considering the very nature of Infinity and the three face of pi (π).