Jews Say No demonstrate in New York.
Recently, Batya Ungar-Sargon, an editor at the
Forward, wrote an
article about the "failings" of intersectionality, and the specific "failing" of the left to include anti-Semitism in its analysis of oppressions. She also makes claims that opposing the inclusion of Zionism in social justice movements means the exclusion of Jews.
The article has serious conceptual flaws as well as factual inaccuracies that mischaracterize and do a disservice to movements for justice, and, as a result, make accusations of marginalizing Jews that are not rooted in reality.
To say, as the author does in her article, that "As a paradigm, intersectionality has failed Jews" makes little sense. As a lens through which to understand multiple dimensions of power - where and how they do or don't intersect or connect - intersectionality does not "fail" any group.
Further, the author writes, "Intersectionality would dictate that the oppression of Palestinians is much worse than the oppression of Jews, and thus a much higher priority.... It is at the end of the day a hierarchical structure, one that creates a hierarchy of oppression and determines levels of threat."
Intersectionality, a term coined by legal scholar
Kimberlé Crenshaw, is precisely not about promoting hierarchies of oppression (thereby leaving out the Jews), but is a framework - an analytic tool - that focuses on the multiple effects and overlap of structural oppressions among communities that have been impacted by injustice.
Comment: See also: