CBA Record July-August 2021

boost my privilege, but I ammore than just a single identity and each identity affects me differently, isolated and in concert. To bring it closer to home, consider a 2020 study from the American Bar Asso- ciation on women lawyers of color, Left Out and Left Behind . The authors, one of whom is Chicago lawyer Eileen Letts, found that the collective experiences of women lawyers of color differ from white women lawyers. Women lawyers of color reported they were “far more likely to want to leave the profession than their white colleagues; were more likely to be subjected to both implicit and explicit bias; and were more likely to report factors that blocked their ‘access to success,’ including access to business development opportuni- ties, being perceived as less committed to career, and being denied or overlooked for promotion.” Likewise, the collective experiences of white male lawyers can differ markedly from those of non-white lawyers, male or female. Turning intersectionality into action First, a warning – there are no clear- cut, catch-all solutions. These issues are nuanced and require a great deal of self-reflection and unlearning. I offer an introduction fromwhich you can build and some steps to push the needle in the right direction. I rely on Professor Crenshaw’s and others’ decades of research and writing in offering some guidance. CBA RECORD 33

intersecting identities. Nevertheless, we persist in perceiving bias as one-dimensional. Consider the plight of the plaintiffs in DeGraffenried . They sued GM for gender discrimination. The court regarded their claim as a single issue – gender discrimination. They sued for race discrimination. Again, the court regarded their claim as a single-issue – race discrimination. Theproblemof isolatingone identity The legal system has become accustomed to laws and policies that deal with one identity at a time. But shouldn’t the law – shouldn’t we – consider the DeGraffenried plaintiffs’ intersecting identities, their whole selves? The concept of intersectionality emphasizes a person’s multiple identities. As explained by a Southern Poverty Law Center project learningforjustice.org, “Our identities affect the way we interact with the world. Our identities affect the way the world interacts with us.” Intersections are complex. Some may lead to discrimination or oppression; others

to privilege and power. Others may result in privilege, power, or both. In 1980, the essayist and activist Audre Lorde wrote about the impact her intersectional identi- ties had on her: “As a forty-nine-year-old Black lesbian feminist Socialist mother of two, including one boy, and a member of an interracial couple, I usually find myself a part of some group defined as other, devi- ant, inferior, or just plain wrong.” Because intersectionality can still seem abstract, let’s engage in an exercise. Think of several streets connecting. The streets represent the many ways people identify themselves. One street is for race, another for gender, others for sexuality, ethnicity, religion, etc. We all hold many identities, so why think in terms of isolating one identity? Are you just a white person, a Black person, a Latinx? Are you just straight or just a member of the LGBTQ+ community? Are you just Muslim? Christian? Atheist? For example, my identities include white, male, heterosexual, and Jewish. Many of the identities that apply to me intersect to