https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibJyZeTzLIY (Links to an external site.)
I chose this clip from Season 4 of Grey’s Anatomy, episode 9, titled “Crash Into Me” because it’s from a very popular television show that discusses intersectionality frequently, and it relates very well to the piece we read by Kimberlé Crenshaw.
In this clip, a man comes into the Emergency Room where a black female doctor is working–Dr.Bailey. When Dr.Bailey tries to examine the patient he insists on being treated by a male physician. When a male doctor–Dr.Weber–comes to treat him, the patient refuses treatment again. Dr.Weber concludes that the patient wishes to be treated by a white doctor. In this clip we see Dr.Bailey experience discrimination, but it is unclear until the end, when Dr.Weber appears, for which of her identities this patient is discriminating against Dr.Bailey. He says at first that he wants to be treated by a man, even though Dr.Bailey is just as capable of a doctor as her male colleagues.
In the end–though it is possible that Dr.Bailey’s sex influenced the patient’s refusal of treatment in addition to his feelings about race–it is clear that he is not interested in being treated by a black doctor. This clip represents how our identities are at play whether we are paying attention to them or not; even though Dr.Bailey was most concerned about her role as a physician when she was presented with an injured man, her gender and racial identities were still at play and affected her ability to perform her duties.
