Blog post #2. Intersectionality & Multiple Identities: Faith.

This post draws on Kimberlé Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality to study and reflect on how faith intersect with other identity factors.  

With this aim, it has been helpful to first step back and gain a better understanding of what faith is in itself. In his talk “Is religion good or bad? (This is a trick question)” (2014), Kwame Anthony Appiah proposes that our concept of religion stems from a historical list created by European travellers who encountered cultures with different belief systems. They categorised these belief systems as “religions” in comparison to their own Christianity, generating a misunderstanding of the concept which creates a false binary between religion and science. Appiah urges us to reconsider the concept of religion and suggests that there is no single entity called “religion” that can be good or bad. 

At a more practical level, such misconceptions of faith and religion reflect in epistemic conflict and very often injustice. Reki (2023) analyses these by proposing to perspectives on religious identity: as a social category and as a worldview or comprehensive belief system. By examining religious identity through these perspectives, Reki aims to illuminate the unique ways religious individuals, particularly from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, can be epistemically disadvantaged as they are subject to stereotypes, like assuming a Muslim woman’s beliefs based solely on her clothing, or underestimating the connections between religion, race, and gender. 

In the video “Challenging Race, Religion, and Stereotypes in the Classroom” by Trinity University (2016), PhD. Simran Jeet Singh shares three powerful angles to tackle exclusion and marginalisation through teaching practice and advocacy: 

• Challenging stereotypes. Singh says: “one of the real challenges we’re facing in our society is a tendency to try and paint entire communities with a single brush stroke you know we like to think that all people of a community are the same even though when we look closely we recognise that each community is diverse no one’s a model if no communities a monolith”. By finding opportunities to challenge those constructs we help prove the differences that exist within these communities. Challenging those basic stereotypes through practice will not only promote an inclusive culture within the classroom, but also challenge systemic discrimination by reacting to generalised assumptions. 
• Engaging with difference, with empathy.  Singh points out that “everyone has their own experiences, everyone has their own perspectives, and if we can try and understand where people are coming from with empathy with sort of a human element then that allows us to really engage with difference in a way that is constructive rather than destructive”. I find this “human element” the core of the intersectional perspective and ultimately, the base for real inclusivity, as it is the acknowledgment of everyone’s individuality and the empathy for everyone’s reality and experiences that will allow us to work on ensuring equity in the classroom and in in the world. 
• Dealing with argumentation. So that students can critically look at the ways in which people mobilise different arguments or propaganda as a way of gaining power. Singh brings the topic of uses of speech into the classroom, to analyse the use of media, dog whistles and political debates and how these methods of fear-mongering contribute to the garnering of political power. 

Singh highlights the importance of acknowledging history and how the US -and Western world- was founded on practices of discrimination and racism and that has continued to this day and we’re seeing it boiling over in the present moment, as well as the capacity of critically analyse the uses of speech and all  contemporary channels working to garner political power through generating division and fear. These points lead me to reconfirm the importance of educating through critical thinking. 

While I consider my practice to be heavily based on encouraging this critical thinking and the development of individual interpretation, the discussed materials have helped me identify important gaps in my approach and powerful opportunities to promote inclusivity. This inspires me to develop my practice by stressing these points on perception, historical and contextual knowledge and critical perspectives on argumentation. It also highlights the need for protecting that “human element” at every level of our teaching practice: from the way we tackle epistemic dilemmas, to how we show and promote an openness to understanding multiple and diverse values and beliefs, remaining approachable and empathetic to individual realities of students, over generalised considerations based on assumptions. 

References   

Appiah, K. A. (2014) Is religion good or bad? (This is a trick question). Youtube [Online]. 16 June. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2et2KO8gcY 

Brown, A.D. (2021). Identities in and around organizations: Towards an identity work perspective. Human Relations, 75(7), p.001872672199391. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726721993910.   

Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity politics, and Violence against Women of Color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), pp.1241–1299. doi:https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039. 

Jawad, H. (2022) Islam, Women and Sport: The Case of Visible Muslim Women. [Online]. Available at: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/religionglobalsociety/2022/09/islam-women-and-sport-the-case-of-visible-muslim-women/ 

Reki, J. (2023) Religious Identity and Epistemic Injustice: An Intersectional Account. Hypatia 38, pp779–800. 

Trinity University (2016) Challenging Race, Religion, and Stereotypes in the Classroom. [Online]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CAOKTo_DOk