![Sample our Politics & International Relations journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5947/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Politics-International-Relations.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
How can we best connect and understand issues of power, privilege and justice in a human rights framework? One approach is to explicitly position intersectionality as a theoretical lens that can assist a critical understanding of the connections between these concepts and realities. The paper does this through an examination of the situation in Scotland via Show Racism the Red Card, an anti-racist non-governmental organisation that works with school-age children to raise awareness on the power of prejudice and discrimination in everyday, interrelated lives. It is shown that despite its complexities, intersectionality can work both conceptually and methodologically in complex environments such as classrooms. The realisation of rights is foregrounded and an appreciation of context, politics, social divisions and outcomes vis-à-vis inclusive equalities needs to be fully grasped. The case study of Show Racism the Red Card situates the nuances of intersectionality as both theory and method, illustrating the need for human rights to be mindful of past, present and future. Overall, it is argued that the example of Scotland offers opportunities to witness a critique of how power, privilege and justice are connected and challenged in a human rights context and how rights can be realised in everyday settings.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank the anonymous reviewers and Editors of this special issue for their helpful and constructive comments on earlier drafts of the paper.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Colin Clark is Professor of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of the West of Scotland.
Dee Matthew is a project worker for Show Racism the Red Card in Scotland.
Vicki Burns is a project worker for Show Racism the Red Card in Scotland.
Notes
1 F. Fox Piven, ‘Reflections on Scholarship and Activism’, Antipode 42, no. 4 (2010): 806–810.
2 K. Crenshaw, ‘Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color’, Stanford Law Review 43, no. 6 (1991): 1241– 99; K. Davis, ‘Intersectionality as Buzzword: A Sociology of Science Perspective on What Makes a Feminist Theory Successful’, Feminist Theory 9, no.1 (2008): 67–85; L. McCall, ‘The Complexity of Intersectionality’, Signs 30, no. 3 (2005): 1771–800.
3 F. Williams, ‘Good Enough Principles for Welfare’, Journal of Social Policy 28, no. 4 (1999): 667–87.
4 Davis, ‘Intersectionality as Buzzword’, 68.
5 K. Crenshaw, ‘Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory, and Antiracist Politics’, University of Chicago Legal Forum 14 (1989): 538–54.
6 McCall, ‘Complexity of Intersectionality’, 1771.
7 H.Y. Choo and M.M. Ferree, ‘Practicing Intersectionality in Sociological Research: A Critical Analysis of Inclusions, Interactions, and Institutions in the Study of Inequality’, Sociological Theory 28, no. 2 (2010): 129–49, 131.
8 M. Bulmer and J. Solomos, ‘Introduction’, in Ethnic and Racial Studies Today, ed. M. Bulmer and J. Solomos (London: Routledge, 1999); G. Payne, ed., Social Divisions, 2nd ed. (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006).
9 N. Yuval-Davies, ‘Intersectionality and Feminist Politics’, European Journal of Women’s Studies 13, no. 3 (2006): 193–209.
10 Crenshaw, ‘Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex’.
11 Davis, ‘Intersectionality as Buzzword’.
12 A. Bonnett, Radicalism, Anti-racism and Representation (London: Routledge, 2003).
13 M.J. Matsuda, ‘Beside My Sister, Facing the Enemy: Legal Theory out of Coalition’, Stanford Law Review 43, no. 6 (1991): 1183–92, 1189.
14 D.K. King, ‘Multiple Jeopardy, Multiple Consciousness: The Context of a Black Feminist Ideology’, Signs 14, no. 1 (1988): 42–72.
15 P.H. Collins, ‘It’s All in the Family: Intersections of Gender, Race, and Nation’, in Decentering the Center: Philosophy for a Multicultural, Postcolonial, and Feminist World, ed. U. Narayan and S. Harding (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000), 156–76; F. Anthias, ‘Rethinking Social Divisions: Some Notes Towards a Theoretical Framework', Sociological Review 46, no.3 (1998): 557–80.
16 A. Brah, Cartographies of Diaspora: Contesting Identities (London: Routledge, 1996).
17 L. Mani, ‘Multiple Mediations: Feminist Scholarship in the Age of Multinational Reception’, Inscriptions 5 (1989): 1–24.
18 A. Phoenix, ‘Editorial: Intersectionality’, European Journal of Women’s Studies 13, no. 3 (2006): 187–92.
19 Crenshaw, ‘Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex’.
20 G.T.Hull, P.B. Scott, and B. Smith, eds., All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave: Black Women’s Studies (Old Westbury: Feminist Press, 1982).
21 b. hooks, Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 1984).
22 H. Becker, ‘Whose Side Are We On?’, Social Problems 14 (Winter, 1967): 239–47.
23 J.C. Humphrey, ‘Researching Disability Politics, or, Some Problems with the social model in Practice’, Disability and Society 15, no. 1 (2000): 63–85.
24 McCall, ‘Complexity of Intersectionality’.
25 Humphrey, ‘Researching Disability Politics’.
26 N. Lykke, ‘Intersectionality Revisited: Problems and Potentials’, Kvinnovetenskaplig Tidskrift 2, no. 3 (2005): 7–17.
27 J. Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (New York: Routledge, 1989); J. Butler, Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of ‘Sex’ (New York: Routledge, 1993).
28 b. hooks, Black Looks: Race and Representation (Boston, MA: South End Press, 1992); b. hooks, Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representations (New York: Routledge, 1994).
29 Yuval-Davies, ‘Intersectionality and Feminist Politics’.
30 Davis, ‘Intersectionality as Buzzword’, 74–5.
31 G. Valentine, ‘Theorizing and Researching Intersectionality: A Challenge for Feminist Geography’, The Professional Geographer 59, no. 1 (2007): 10–21.
32 N. Naber, ‘Osama’s Daughters: Cultural Racism, Nation-Based Racism, and the Intersection- ality of Oppressions after 9/11’, Review of Women’s Studies 5 (2009): 50–63; A. Jamal and N. Naber, eds., Race and Arab Americans Before and After 9/11: From Invisible Subjects to Visible Subjects (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2008).
33 Matsuda, ‘Beside My Sister, Facing the Enemy’.
34 Naber, ‘Osama’s Daughters’, 57.
35 Ibid.
36 Ibid, 51.
37 Ibid, 53.
38 Ibid.
39 Phoenix, ‘Editorial: Intersectionality’.
40 Davis, ‘Intersectionality as Buzzword’.
41 M. Verloo, ‘Multiple Inequalities, Intersectionality and the European Union’, European Journal of Women’s Studies 13, no. 3 (2006): 211–28.
42 Yuval-Davies, ‘Intersectionality and Feminist Politics’.
43 McCall, ‘Complexity of Intersectionality’; Valentine, ‘Theorizing and Researching Intersectionality’.
44 Phoenix, ‘Editorial: Intersectionality’.
45 ‘Sturgeon: I Would Be Happy to Have a Syrian Refugee Stay in my Home’, The Evening Times, 6 September 2015, http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/13648939.Sturgeon__I_would_be_happy_to_have_a_Syrian_refugee_stay_in_my_home/ (accessed 8 May 2017).
46 S. Katwala and S. Ballinger, The Politics of Immigration (London: British Future, 2015), https://www.britishfuture.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/The-politics-of-immigration.pdf (accessed 8 May 2017).
47 National Records of Scotland, 2011 Census: Key Results on Population, Ethnicity, Identity, Language, Religion, Health, Housing and Accommodation in Scotland – Release 2A, Statistical Bulletin (Edinburgh: National Records of Scotland, 2013, http://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/documents/censusresults/release2a/StatsBulletin2A.pdf (accessed 8 May 2017).
48 STV Television Network, ‘Hate Crime in Scotland up as 3700 Racial Charges Reported’, STV News Report, 10 June 2016 https://stv.tv/news/scotland/1357021-hate-crime-in-scotland-up-as-3700-racial-charges-reported/ (accessed 8 May 2017).
49 C. Young, Racist Incident Reporting in Scotland’s Schools (Glasgow: Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights, 2010).
50 Crenshaw, ‘Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex’; McCall, ‘Complexity of Intersectionality’; Choo and Ferree, ‘Practicing Intersectionality in Sociological Research’.
51 Williams, ‘Good Enough Principles for Welfare’.
52 P.G. Kirchschlager,‘Human Rights and Corresponding Duties and Duty Bearers’, International Journal of Human Rights and Constitutional Studies 2, no. 4 (2014): 309–321.
53 T.H. Marshall,Citizenship and Social Class: And Other Essays (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1950).
54 G.C. Spivak,‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’, in Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, ed. C. Nelson and L. Grossberg (Basingstoke: Macmillan Education, 1988), 66–111.
55 Crenshaw, ‘Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex’.
56 J. Wadham, et al., Blackstone’s Guide to the Equality Act 2010 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).
57 S. Hall, ‘New Ethnicities’, in Race, Culture and Difference, ed. A. Rattansi and J. Donald (London: Sage, 1992), 252–59.
58 F. Anthias, ‘Intersections and Translocations: New Paradigms for Thinking about Cultural Diversity and Social Identities’, European Educational Research Journal 10, no. 2 (2011): 204–217.
59 W. Tufail and S. Poynting, ‘A Common “Outlawness”: Criminalisation of Muslim Minorities in the UK and Australia’, International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy no. 3 (2013): 43–54.
60 Anthias, ‘Intersections and Translocations’.
61 H. Khaleeli, ‘“A Frenzy of Hatred”: How to Understand Brexit Racism’, The Guardian, 29 June 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/29/frenzy-hatred-brexit-racism-abuse-referendum-celebratory-lasting-damage (accessed 9 May 2017).
62 Naber, ‘Osama’s Daughters’.
63 Matsuda, ‘Beside My Sister, Facing the Enemy’.