Embracing Intersectionality in Co-Cultural and Dominant Group Theorizing: Implications for Theory, Research, and Pedagogy

It can be difficult to identify consequential social identities when both conversation participants feel culturally disadvantaged. This phenomenon is especially present in intercultural interactions that are power-laden, but are also present when there are multiple perceptions of social disadvantage at play within a given interaction. Depending on the saliency of a cultural marker such as race or sex, for example, an African American man may feel disadvantaged more or less than a European American woman during the same exchange, depending on which cultural marker they each deem most prominent (Orbe & Roberts, 2012). Most people maintain both privileged and marginalized identities, but when someone claims to be more or less privileged/marginalized than someone else, a paradox of intersectionality emerges. A paradox of intersectionality (Boogaard & Rogaland, 2010; Nash, 2008) recognizes that not all oppression is experienced the same, and claims there is no distinct hierarchical manifestation of marginalization. We explore the benefits of embracing an intersubjective ontology that is historically situated, but not determined, to suggest that intersubjectivity and intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1989) is central to co-cultural and dominant group theorizing (Razzante & Orbe, 2018). Intersubjectivity reminds us that “who we are in the world is based on the beliefs that we are not separate individuals (entities) but we are always in relation with others—with particular persons, communities, history, culture, [and] language” (Cunliffe, 2016, p. 742). We believe this interconnectedness of identity informs co-cultural and dominant group theory and therefore expands the possibilities for its theorization. © 2021 Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.