For this week's assignment, first, define the term intersectionality. Second, using the concept of intersectionality and drawing on our earlier discussions on cultural hierarchies, heterosexuality, and colonialism, explain how the idealization of the heterosexual family in the US creates racial hierarchies. Could you name any examples that come to your mind (i.e. family separation at the border, phenomenonof mass incarceration etc.)? The following quote from Hill's article might help you in doing so:

"The logic of the traditional family ideal can be used to explain race relations. One way that this occurs is when racial inequality becomes explained using family roles. For example, racial ideologies that portray people of color as intellectually underdeveloped, uncivilized children require parallel ideas that construct Whites as intellectually mature, civilized adults. When applied to race, family rhetoric that deems adults more developed than children, and thus entitled to greater power, uses naturalized ideas about age and authority to legitimate racial hierarchy" (Collins 2000: 159).

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Answer Intersectionality refers to the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race class gender and sexuality as they create overlapp... View the full answer