Marginalized & the Movement: Black Women's Experiences Organizing

• In Event: Intersectionality and Social Movements

Abstract

Under what conditions does intersectionality influence the strategies of social movement leaders? Activists utilize group identities to recruit and retain participants (Polletta and Jasper 2001), similarly, the social identities of the movement’s leadership is important for mobilization processes. People expect leaders to hold more privileged identities such as Whiteness or masculinity (Rosette, Leonardelli, and Phillips 2008; Scott and Brown 2006). While there are exceptions they tend to occur in organizations on the decline (Rosette and Livingston 2012). Between the downward trajectory of the organizations and discrimination from outside and within (Hurwitz 2019) organizations, intersectional leaders, those with multiple marginalized identities, face tremendous challenges in leading activist organizations.
I argue intersectional activists take resistance against their intersectional identity into account in their strategizing and therefore prefer more moderate tactics rather than techniques considered radical. I speculate this includes a hesitation to include intersectional political agendas into their organizing for fear of backlash. This framework identifies the concern of discriminatory resistance as a key factor in intersectional leaders' tactical selection and assesses the potency of this factor’s influence on public opinion. Utilizing in-depth interviews, I focus this analysis on Black women’s experiences in activist organizations. Preliminary analysis finds Black women activists who experienced discrimination expressed a hesitance toward radical tactical approaches.

Author

• Crystal Robertson, University of California, Irvine