# Intersectionality and the Oppression Pyramid

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intersectionality-and-the-oppression-pyramid/1018016>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [May 7, 2025, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intersectionality-and-the-oppression-pyramid/1018016 "2025-05-07T16:38:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 149

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**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\
**Post date:** [May 12, 2025, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intersectionality-and-the-oppression-pyramid/1018016/149 "2025-05-12T13:40:58Z")

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> [@DSeid](#):
>
> Privileged or underprivileged I do not want to be _forced_ to share my family origin story and intersectional identities in a public venue. Who needs conservative bloggers when the Left does their messaging for them?

This did indeed come up a bunch a few years ago when “CRT” was the big topic of discussion.

Critical Race Theory is a pedagogical tool, so kids don’t “learn it in school”; but (slightly) more nuanced Conservative takes would point out that CRT is used to create certain lessons that _are_ used in schools - like the Privilege Walk.

Here’s a case where it came up on the board in 2021:

> [@Virginia election-talk me down off the ledge](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-election-talk-me-down-off-the-ledge/953496/234):
>
> From the Atlantic article cited above: The idea that critical race theory is an academic concept that is taught only at colleges or law schools might be technically accurate, but the reality on the ground is a good deal more complicated. Few middle or high schoolers are poring over academic articles written by [Richard Delgado](https://www.law.ua.edu/directory/People/view/Richard_Delgado) or [Kimberlé Crenshaw](https://www.law.columbia.edu/faculty/kimberle-w-crenshaw). But across the nation, [many teachers](https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/54150/teaching-6-year-olds-about-privilege-and-power) have, over the past years, begun to adopt a pedagogical program that owes its inspiration to ideas that are ver…

Now… I don’t think it’s quite as bad as you guys are making it out to be. When done _right_, it’s actually a good tool for explaining the basic idea of equity vs equality (you can demonstrate that if the kids were lining up for a race, some of them would have a huge advantage and could win by walking over the finish line, while others have basically no chance). And it’s also (again, when done well) a way to show that you can be advantaged or disadvantaged by things _other than_ your “identities”, like race, religion, sex, and orientation. Individual family history events can be included, or things like your parents having a car when you were growing up, etc.

I’ve defended the basic concept before, and I still do, in situations where it’s relevant (I don’t think it would be good if every random teacher decides to do it because it’s “trendy” regardless of the class’ topic; but in a leadership elective, for example, it’s entirely appropriate).

That said, it can _also_ be handled inappropriately, which is where a lot of the outrage over these probably comes from. If done properly, most of the prompts are life events, not “identities”.

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