Exploring Identity Through Intersectionality: Lessons from Alta / A Human Atlas of a City of Angels

In this activity, you will:

• learn about the idea of intersectionality
• analyze an example of intersectionality in an artwork
• reflect and write about your identity using an intersectional lens

• Multipart Activity

• Identity Map Template (Google Slides). Print, download, or type directly into the template by making a copy.

Read About “Intersectionality”

Who are you? At first, this question may seem simple, but our identities are shaped by many different influences. The concept of intersectionality helps us understand that people navigate and experience the world with multiple identities at the same time. These identities combine and accumulate, shaping how a person experiences overlapping forms of discrimination (such as racism, sexism, and classism).

Factors that influence identity and life experiences can include race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, age, religion, language, ability, family background, education, nationality, socioeconomic status, and more. Identity is complex and personal. No single factor can fully define who a person is. Rather than acting separately, these factors intersect, creating each person’s unique experience of the world.

Intersectionality encourages us to value the full complexity of people’s identities rather than judging them based on a single characteristic. It also asks us to consider how individuals may experience and navigate the world differently. Understanding intersectionality can help us develop empathy. When we consider the many forces that shape a person’s identity, we are less likely to make assumptions based on a single characteristic. Every person has a story that includes family history, culture, geography, community, and personal choices. By listening to and learning about these stories, we can better understand both ourselves and others.

Questions

Write or discuss your responses.

• What does the term intersectionality mean, in your own words?
• What are some of the different factors that shape a person’s identity, and how might these factors be shaped by systems of marginalization and oppression?
• How can understanding intersectionality help us build more inclusive communities?

Explore Intersectionality Through Alta / A Human Atlas of a City of Angels

Alta / A Human Atlas of a City of Angels by photographer Marcus Lyon explores identity through the lives of people living in Los Angeles County, California. This artwork and research project combines portraits, personal stories, and ancestry information to show how identity is complex and constantly evolving. For example, some participants have mixed cultural and ancestral backgrounds that connect them to multiple communities at once. Others describe how migration, language, socio-economic status, ability, family history, oppressive social systems or social expectations have shaped who they are. Their stories demonstrate that identity is not just one thing—it is a combination of many experiences that include both privilege and oppression, challenges and opportunities. Intersectionality encourages us to look beyond labels and recognize the complexity of people’s lives.

Case Study: Michelle Kaori Hanabusa

Every participant in Alta is shaped by their intersectionality. One example is Michelle Kaori Hanabusa. Look closely at her portrait. Describe what you see. Next, listen to the oral history in which she talks about her identity, experiences, and beliefs. Finally, look at her quote and DNA ancestry on the Alta website by clicking the second and third dots under her portrait.

Questions

Pull it all together, considering everything you learned about Hanabusa. Write or discuss your responses.

• What different aspects of Hanabusa’s identity are described? Cite at least two specific details or quotes that describe her identity. Why might it be limiting to describe her using only one label?
• What intersecting identities influence Hanabusa’s perspective and experiences?

Write About Your Identity Through the Lens of Intersectionality

Using a blank piece of paper or the Identity Map Template (Google Slides), create an “identity map” with your name in the center. Around it, write the different factors that contribute to who you are (for example: family, culture, language, hobbies, beliefs, gender, nationality, friendships, life experiences, goals, or values). To use the template, print, download, or type directly into the template by making a copy.

Using your identity map as a starting point, write about your identity from an intersectional perspective in two to three paragraphs. Make sure to include the following details:

• Using an intersectional lens, describe how your family, community, or life experiences influenced who you are today.
• Which influences have had the greatest impact on your identity and why?
• Which aspects of your identity feel most important to you? Why?
• How do the identities you choose, inherit, and that society assigns or perceives influence your experiences, opportunities, and challenges? What does this reveal about how identity and systems in society are connected?
• Identity is not fixed; it can grow and change over time. Are there parts of your identity that have changed over time? What influenced those changes?

Something that relates to, is inherited from, or passed down by one’s ancestors from previous generations, or is connected to family history, traditions, or origins.

Prejudice and discrimination against people because of their social or economic class, such as how much money they have, their job, or education.

Actions stemming from conscious or unconscious prejudice, which favor and empower one group over others based on differences of race, gender, economic class, sexual orientation, physical ability, religion, language, age, national identity, and other categories.

The qualities, expressions, beliefs, physical traits, cultures, and social statuses that comprise a person and/or group of people.

The complex, cumulative way in which the effects of multiple forms of discrimination (such as racism, sexism, and classism) combine, overlap, or intersect, especially in the experiences of marginalized individuals or groups.

The act or process of pushing a group of people to the outside of society, or treating them as unimportant or powerless.

Historical, organized, and systemic mistreatment of and discrimination towards a group or community. Oppression can be ideological, institutional, interpersonal, and internalized.

An interview that is typically recorded in which someone shares their experiences, memories, and perspective. Oral histories capture history through the voices of the people who lived it.

Prejudice and discrimination against people because of their race.

Unfair treatment of people based on their sex or gender, often rooted in the idea that one gender is superior to another. Sexism can affect how people are treated at school, at work, or in everyday life through unequal opportunities or expectations.