Intersectionality
The three video interviews present examples of how intersectionality affects individuals in different ways:
Paralympian Ade Adepitan talks about his intersecting identity of race and disability and how events such as the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement created a “crossroads for humanity”. This opportunity, with global public awareness of race and discrimination at a high point to bring about change in how society “gives people opportunities to shine”. He argues that “society is what holds us back” and that accessibility to opportunities, equipment, coaching and platforms then people from marginalised communities will succeed. He also talked about how progress has been made, but this can be token measures that perhaps play lip-service to the idea of equality and access but there is still systemic racism and discrimination around disability that is ingrained in society and easy to disguise in places such as employment opportunities. The interviewer also mentioned how, by making a space on public transport for disabled people, this becomes a form of segregation as disabled people are still treated differently to the rest of society, labelled, put in a special placed.
Christine Sun Kim spoke about her arts practice and her intersectional identity as a deaf mother and how government polices in Germany have enabled her to have an arts practice. Free childcare and affordable living costs mean she has time and space to practice as an artist – the “benefits of a government that supports its citizens”. Something that is much more difficult in the US for example, where her friends and family live. Through her work Christine has raised awareness within the hearing world for the deaf community and she talks about the importance of scale, that “scale equals visibility, that has the ability to shape social norms”. Her aim is for “deaf lives to be in your mind and be part of what we consider acceptable”.
In the third video, Chay Brown, a trans man with mental health difficulties, spoke about his intersecting identity being somewhat hidden as a cis passing man with disabilities that are not immediately obvious, and he has a lot of privileges. It’s important therefore to consider that disabilities can be hidden or not immediately obvious. His mental health difficulties meant that he found the subtleties of non-verbal communication, particularly with the gay community, difficult to understand, leading to challenging situations that caused more anxiety for him. Some really important things he said were about providing all aspects of accessibility as the norm: accessible venues for wheelchairs, but also accessible toilets, closed captioning, etc. Importantly, he said that people should be asked what their access needs are, creating ‘person-centred’ environments, putting people with lived experiences of disabilities in charge of making decisions will result in more empathetic decisions and understanding of needs, that there should be budgets for accessibility. An important point he made towards the end was about giving people a forum to talk about their needs and that this will empower others to come forward and take about their needs, therefore normalising the situation.
There were several common themes I picked up on in each of the interviews, these were to do with making accessibility the norm and not something to be done under special measures for those with disabilities as this can create a new kind of segregation and not result in inclusion.
This will be a challenge for society as there is ingrained systemic discrimination in society. Government policies can play a huge determining factor here as adequate funding for facilities, equipment, financial support, etc will result those from marginalised communities being able to shine.
In my own teaching context, considerations for students with disabilities have included sign language translators for deaf students, accessible text files, captioning for videos and audio files for students with learning difficulties and ISAs detailing specific learning circumstances for students.
Sources have been comprehensively interrogated in teasing out key issues being face by marginalised groups. Each one is given a thorough analysis! You touch on your own experiences with students which seems like an interesting thread to pursue. I’m intrigued to know your position and how you feel as a practitioner faced with new information on intersectionality. How much is the ‘lip service’ observation you make prevalent in your teaching context?
An enjoyable read.
Rob
Thank you, Rob. I need to develop the latter parts of the post, about my own teaching experiences. I feel that as teaching staff we are encouraged to be aware of these issues in our teaching but there could and should be more things enacted at a UAL policy level and adequate support/provision to help us and the students create an environment where everyone has equal access to learning. Chay’s comments in the interview really made me think about how everyone needs to be represented and involved at decision-making level and considered so that access for all is the base provision rather than special measures for those who need it.
Reading your reflections on Chay’s thoughts led me to think about the active creation of spaces for people to voice their needs within my own teaching context, and the normalisation of this (perhaps this could be the creation or instigation of some kind of forum, maybe online).
In relation to your reflections about government policies limiting people from marginalised communities, I would also be interested to spend time understanding how these, and ual policies impact our students in specific ways.
Thank you, Flo. That’s a good point about spaces for people to voice their needs. Student reps and course committee meetings are a form of this but some kind of more localised, more immediate forum could be really useful. A friend and ex-student of mine studied an MA at the ‘University of the Underground’, an institution affiliated with the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam. Among many other progressive sounding initiatives they undertook was a simple clipboard in every studio with comments sections, etc, “how this space could be improved”. Maybe have a look at the school website if of interest and I’ll try and find out more: https://universityoftheunderground.org/sandberg-instituut
Thanks so much Stephen, thats really interesting to hear- I will have a look around, perhaps there is someone I can contact to discuss it with further. I think something along these line could end up being my intervention. As you say, the course committee meetings tend to focus on issues relating to wider issues, whereas a physical ‘space’ to write thoughts down within the studio itself might allow for more specific suggestions to be noted as and when they come to students’ mind.
A thorough overview of the interviewees and how their differing intersectional identities affect them. You have shown awareness of the ways in which each individual experiences prejudice and how society has structured itself to marginalise rather than support them.
It was good to read how you have worked with and made projects more accessible for students with disabilities. It has helped me to reflect upon my own teaching experiences when working with students with ISA’s and disabilities.
Thank you, Tommy. The section at the end about accessibility for students with disabilities was more about the standard UAL accessibility protocol than my own interventions – definitely an area to think about and improve upon. I did produce a series of video tutorials during lockdown for our students and these have proved to be successful beyond this period, so perhaps something about accessibility outside of the classroom environment could be a useful avenue to explore.