So You Want to Talk About Race

Feminism describes a broad range of social and political movements aimed at achieving equality of the sexes. The privileging of the male perspective, alongside the unfair treatment of women, are key feminist beliefs. Various feminist movements have lobbied for women’s rights, including the right to vote, hold public office, own property, receive an education, and earn equal pay. Some feminists have also worked to ensure access to legal abortion and for the protection of women from sexual violence. Oluo criticizes many early feminists for failing to consider race in their discussions of gender equality.

Intersectionality refers to the belief that social justice movements must consider all the intersections of identity, privilege, and oppression to be effective and just. The term was coined in 1989 by race theorist and civil rights activist Kimberlé Crenshaw. Her broad aim was to illuminate the ways in which experiences related to race and gender entwined to impact the lives of women of color. Oluo argues that social justice movements have generally been slow to take up intersectional practices.

Affirmative action describes policies and practices aimed at preventing discrimination. President Kennedy introduced affirmative action in the 1960s to help reverse extreme racial gaps in federal employment and higher education. The goal was to get federal employers to fight racial discrimination proactively in their hiring practices and to increase the Black undergraduate population, which stood at only 5%. Shortly after its introduction, affirmative action was expanded to include all women. Today, it aims to support members of any disadvantaged or underrepresented group, including those based on race, sex, creed, ability, and national origin. For Oluo, affirmative action works, but not as well as it should.

The term cultural appropriation refers to the adoption of an element or elements of one culture by members of a dominant culture. A well-known example is the appropriation of rap music by White artists. So long as racial inequality exists, all forms of cultural appropriation run the risk of being exploitative, Oluo explains.

Microaggressions are small, daily indignities and insults targeting members of marginalized groups simply because they belong to these groups. Examples of microaggressions include assuming someone is good at math because they are Asian and continuously mispronouncing the name of a person of color, despite being corrected. Such microaggressions, in addition to causing anxiety and depression for people of color, normalize racism by making racist behavior part of everyday life.