Multiple jeopardy
Multiple jeopardy is the theory that the various factors of one's identity that lead to discrimination or oppression, such as gender, class, or race, have a multiplicative effect on the discrimination that person experiences. The term was coined by Dartmouth Professor Deborah K. King in her 1988 essay, "Multiple Jeopardy, Multiple Consciousness: The Context of a Black Feminist Ideology" to account for the limitations of the double or triple jeopardy models of discrimination, which assert that every unique prejudice has an individual effect on one's status, and that the discrimination one experiences is the additive result of all of these prejudices. Under the model of multiple jeopardy, it is instead believed that these prejudices are interdependent and have a multiplicative relationship; for this reason, the multiple jeopardy in its name primarily emphasizes the simultaneous existence of multiple forms of discrimination rather than the type of relationship among them. King demonstrates that those who face multiple jeopardy might develop multiple consciousness, an awareness of systems of inequality working with and through one another, to support the validity of the black feminist and other intersectional causes.
Difference from double jeopardy
The framework of multiple jeopardy was created as a response to the double or triple jeopardy assumption, which, as understood by King, correlates each mode of discrimination with individual and independent effects that, when added together, will create the full picture of the discrimination one faces. Deborah K. King likens this model to a mathematical equation: "racism plus sexism plus classism equals triple jeopardy". If, for example, it were to be understood that, as a result of racism, black people in the workplace face an earnings disadvantage compared to white men, and women in the workplace face an earnings disadvantage due to sexism, then double jeopardy would assume that a black woman would see an earnings disadvantage of no more or less than the sum of that faced by black people and women on their own. This assumption runs contrary to the idea of intersectionality by asserting that individuals do not face unique forms of discrimination as a result of the various aspects of their identity such as gender or race, and that discrimination can instead be predicted as the sum of the effects each of these aspects has on the way they are treated.By contrast, King's multiple jeopardy overturned the false dichotomy and trichotomy between race, gender, and classism to reveal how a belief in race, gender, and classism as different problems marginalizes Black women in the antiracist social movements. Instead, it is founded on the idea that each mode of discrimination is multiplicative and independent, and thus the relationship between racism, sexism and classism would be represented as "racism multiplied by sexism multiplied by classism independently". King uses this mathematical equation to argue that the institutional context behind the ways that race, sex, and class are treated in society can create unique types of discrimination that differ vastly from the discrimination associated with each of these factors. Under this ideology, the discrimination experienced by a black woman is seen as much more than just the sum of the discrimination that a black man and a white woman would experience.
King illustrates this concept by recounting the ill treatment of black women during the era of slavery in the United States. At that time, black workers were subjected to demanding physical labor and brutal punishments. Black men and black women were both victims of this practice, but black women also endured subjugation exclusive to women; as Angela Davis explained in Women, Race, and Class, "If the most violent punishments of men consisted in floggings and mutilations, women were flogged and mutilated, as well as raped." King explains that while rape was a common punishment for women, the rape and impregnation of black women was used to strengthen and perpetuate the slave trade because it helped produce capital - being, in this case, more slaves. King concludes that the rape of black women in the era of slavery was critically differentiated from the rape of women as a whole because it existed as the product of contemporary, institutional racism, and could not have existed without relation to said racism.
Difference from intersectionality
Multiple jeopardy and intersectionality are two related but distinct frameworks that are often confused. While intersectionality, coined by Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw, describes how different identity factors such as race, gender, and class intersect to create unique forms of discrimination, multiple jeopardy — introduced by King — focuses specifically on the multiplicative effect of overlapping oppressions.Take Kimberlé Crenshaw's well-known metaphor of intersection as an example. The concept of intersectionality emphasizes the distinct place where "roads" of oppression overlap. Under intersectionality, each identity is understood to interact with others to create a distinct experience of discrimination, but it does not necessarily assume a multiplicative effect. However, multiple jeopardy assumes that these factors interact in a way that produces a compounding impact rather than an additive one, making discrimination more severe than the sum of each individual factor. Multiple jeopardy can be thought of as standing at the intersection where a car accident occurred, causing an amplified sense of trauma due to the compounded nature of the collisions.
Although approached from different perspectives — intersectionality emphasizing the interconnected nature of identity categories and multiple jeopardy focusing on the compounding effects of overlapping discriminations — both frameworks disagree with treating the discrimination and oppression experienced by Black women as a single-axis framework or simply “the sum of race and sex discrimination” and are essential for understanding the complex nature of oppression.
Implications of multiplicative discrimination models
The distinction between additive and multiplicative models has significant implications for social and legal understandings of inequality. Additive models can obscure the unique, compounded forms of discrimination faced by those with intersecting marginalized identities, often reducing these experiences to individual components that fail to capture the full context of oppression. For instance, in an additive framework, a Black woman’s experiences of racism and sexism might be treated as separate issues, ignoring how these forms of bias combine to produce a distinct type of discrimination that cannot be dissected into parts.By contrast, multiplicative model recognize that systems of oppression are not a simply layer but interconnected forces. King’s multiple jeopardy and Kimberlé Crenshaw’s concept of intersectionality reiterates how overlapping social identities can shape lived experiences in ways that are qualitatively different from the experiences of people with only one marginalized identity. This perspective has practical consequences for policy and legal frameworks, as it calls for approaches that can account for interconnecting social inequalities. By acknowledging the compounded effects of intersecting identities, multiplicative models reveal that marginalized groups may need targeted strategies to address the challenges they face.
Multiple jeopardy and multiple consciousness
Deborah King notes that prior scholars, like Frances Beal and Audre Lorde, were skeptical of the idea that black feminists could be entirely invested in both the women's rights and black liberation movements, as a result of the racial and sexual politics within each movement. King disagrees, suggesting that black women, as victims of multiple systems of inequality, are able to perceive these systems in action and recognize how they operate together. This awareness is referred to as "multiple consciousness". King suggests that those who are affected by multiple jeopardy exhibit multiple consciousness, giving them a special understanding of the way different inequalities work together to create systems of discrimination in a way a person experiencing just one form of prejudice could not perceive on their own.While King suggests the relationship between multiple jeopardy and multiple consciousness, there are few studies explicitly examining the link between them. However, scholars have pointed to existing studies on discrimination to support this relationship, noting that, while women are more likely than men to report experiencing discrimination on the basis of gender, minority men are more likely than minority women to report experiencing discrimination on the basis of race or ethnicity. This suggests a difference in one's ability to perceive forms of discrimination when they are victims of more than one system of discrimination.
Multiple consciousness arises as a coping and interpretive way for those facing multiple jeopardy. For Black women specifically, this awareness helps them recognize how race, gender, and other social hierarchies could interact uniquely in their lives. Unlike individuals experiencing discrimination based on a single identity, Black women, and others facing intersecting oppressions, develop a nuanced understanding of how systems of power could interlock and reinforce one another. Multiple consciousness enables them to see how broader social systems perpetuate these forms of inequality.
This awareness empowers marginalized individuals, especially, the Black women, to resist these structures through their activism, self-advocacy, and community involvement. This multi-layered insight not only helps them to navigate the oppression and discrimination they faced but also cultivates a foundation for collective resistance and empowerment, making multiple consciousness a critical element in intersectional feminist frameworks and Black feminist thoughts.