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Abstract
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Our identity impacts everything about how we move through the world as individuals. In the legislative process, identity is often disregarded but has detrimental effects if ignored. Positionality describes how society shapes identities through power and privilege. This methodology requires researchers to analyze their world with their own privileges in mind and is often overlooked by policymakers.
Storytelling, personal identity, and positionality matter in how we craft our perceptions of what needs fixing. Legislators must consider their own identities when crafting policies meant to help the public. Despite being the most racially and ethnically diverse in U.S. history, seventy-seven percent of the 117th Congress is white. With only sixty percent of the U.S. population being white, there is a clear lack of adequate representation.2 While this article will not dive into factors contributing to disproportionate representation, recognizing politicians who keep their seats because of disenfranchisement and voter suppression tactics is imperative.3
With the politicization of identity and a misunderstanding by certain members about what "checking your privilege" means, legislative research positionality may appear to be contentious. Every legislator acknowledging their own biases and experiences is a lofty goal, but Congress has a precedent including diverse voices and narratives. The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) brought activists with conflicting or conflated goals together in a piece of legislation attempting to address different communities' problems. This equal representation and positionality allow legislators and legal professionals to shift dominating narratives and make effectual changes in line with the actual needs of underrepresented communities.
This Article uses the VAWA as a case study to understand how individuals researching, writing, and implementing legislation must take positionality into account. Part II provides background on VAWA and efforts geared toward the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) epidemic. It then contextualizes both critical race feminist and tribal critical race theory. Part III analyzes ways research positionality could benefit and improve upon VAWA, and the idea of intersectionality and conflicting goals within the feminist movement. Part IV concludes the Article.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/hrbrief/vol26/iss1/1
Language: en |