Intersectionality: What is Intersectionality and what does it mean in various contexts? The term is derived from the word Intersection which means “a point where two or more things intersect.” The term can be used to be refer to one’s identity whether biological, political, sociological, religious or otherwise. An example in this regard can be of a straight white Polish American Catholic Northwestern Biomedical Engineering Ph.D. Candidate male or, an African American United Methodist lesbian female ordained woman. In the United States, the gender identity and sexual orientation are quite important to one’s identity and life as a person. For students of theology and seminarians here in the U.S., the conversation about one’s gender identity, …show more content…
During the Spring 2018 Semester at Garrett-Evangelical, while taking the course, Race: America’s True Religion, I was suggested by my seminary professor, Dr. Barry Bryant, to attend an Intersectionality event in connection with the Black History Month celebration hosted by the Muslim Community Center at the Morton Grove Mosque. The event as entitled Intersectionality was intended to address “how race, gender, and social class affect involvement in the Muslim-American Community.” The event consisted of a panel discussion by African American Muslim leaders along with sharing of homemade ethnic cuisines. During the discussion, some of the issues raised by the African American Muslim panel members were ecclesial in nature and related to congregational hospitality. Few of the examples include not being welcomed with open arms after their conversion as Muslims. In other words, the African American Muslims experienced marginalization and neglect, which is noteworthy. The most interesting factor in this context is the neglect by the people of color, for the people of color. Though, this was a surprise to me in some ways yet, I was not taken aback. There are several reasons involved., however, it was fascinating to hear this being shared …show more content…
As stated in the handbook distributed for the event, the Pew Research Center report states, “the Muslim American Community are the most racially diverse community in America.” Additionally, “In Chicagoland, there are Nigerian, Senegalese, Sudanese, Somali, Bosnian, Algerian, Tunisian, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Chinese and African-American Muslims, as well as a variety of Arab, Indonesian and European Muslims, to name a few.” Based on this information, one can analyze that these American Muslim communities belong to ethnically and racially communal spheres where people in one’s everyday life eat and live together with their families or loved ones, which not only creates a bond but also speaks to the practice of faith as being one body in faith. In comparison to that, these American Muslim diaspora communities live in settlements that are often inhabited by the like-minded Indian or Pakistani communities living as a cluster of community, in the Devon Avenue, Chicago. In such a location as this, the ethnic culture is lived and breathed out in communal ways. Hence, though the Indian and Pakistani Muslim communities might be considered a cluster or a clique, they are not dominated or influenced by the individualistic culture or political values of the U.S. As a Pakistani