Lessons on Empty ERG Intersectionality

Let’s talk about intersectionality—but not the empty kind.

Lately, the music world has been doing something that ERGs can learn from. It’s become more and more common to see unexpected genre mashups that somehow work. And what makes them work isn’t just the novelty. It’s the meaning behind them.

As a hip-hop head, I’ve watched songs I grew up with get reimagined into piano covers or turned into jazz riffs played with a saxophone. It’s not just creative. It’s intentional. The sound changes, but the core message still hits.

One of the clearest examples of this done well is Old Town Road. The collaboration between Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus blended hip-hop and country in a way that felt unexpected but deeply resonant. The message (freedom and self-expression) hit home for both audiences. It wasn’t just two genres stacked together. It was a shared story told in a new way. That creative alignment made it a cultural moment, helping the song top the Billboard Hot 100 for 19 consecutive weeks - the longest run at number one in the chart’s history. (The lesson: creative, meaningful, message-driven intersectionality / collaboration is a hit).

Same thing with The Glass by H.E.R. and Foo Fighters. Two completely different artists, audiences, and genres. But they each took the same song and performed it in their own style. The focus wasn’t the collaboration - It was the messaging (the content of the collaboration aka song lyrics) that made both versions powerful. You could feel the story no matter how it was delivered.

Now, back to ERGs.

This is where a lot of ERG intersectionality misses the mark. We lead with the labels. Black and LGBTQ. Asian and Veterans. And because we start there, we often end up with programming that has no message. Just two logos and a vague sense that we “did something together.”

Here’s the shift:

Find the unique throughline between your community and another community, and center programming around that.

Going back to the example of Black and LGBTQ ERGs since June is upcoming- I’ve seen amazing ideas built around Black Dandyism, voguing, or even shared language patterns like AAVE in LGBTQ spaces. That’s the kind of collaboration that actually connects.

And let me say this - EVERY ERG IS INTERSECTIONAL WITH EVERY ERG. It’s those creative, hyperspecific commonalities that’ going to get you intersectional programming that actually drives collaboration.

And as a side note, not everything needs to be intersectional. That’s where things get really watered down. Take Juneteenth for example. If every single year your Juneteenth programming turns into a Pride Month tie-in, you never actually explore the full meaning of Juneteenth. It becomes surface-level. Imagine if every Ramadan celebration only centered women just because it landed in March. We’d miss a huge portion of our audience and have centered a major holiday around one subcommunity.

Occasional intersectionality isn’t the issue. Forced, directionless intersectionality is.

We don’t need more collaborations. We need more creative alignment. That’s how we unlock programming that feels intentional, resonant, and real.

More of that, please.

Maceo 🏆