“With Black women as the starting point, it becomes more apparent how dominant conceptions of discrimination condition us to think about subordination as disadvantage occurring along a single categorical axis. I want to suggest further that this single-axis framework erases Black women in the conceptualization, identification and remediation of race and sex discrimination by limiting inquiry to the experiences of otherwise-privileged members of the group.” (p.140)
She uses the term as a metaphor for the Black women experience being both Black and Woman however often being seen as singular identities rather than an intersectional identification with its own experience. Crenshaw states,
“Consider an analogy to traffic in an intersection, coming and going in all four directions. Discrimination, like traffic through an intersection, may flow in one direction, and it may flow in another. If an accident happens in an intersection, it can be caused by cars traveling from any number of directions and, sometimes, from all of them. Similarly, if a Black woman is harmed because she is in the intersection, her injury could result from sex discrimination or race discrimination” (p.149)
Coined only thirty years ago the term has grown adherence, especially in communities that are directly impacted by multiple forms of oppression. And, although Crenshaw centers on the Black women the term can be used to identify an array of oppressions, such as:
Ability
Race
Gender
Sex
Sexuality
Class
Religion
Body Type
Nationality
Citizenship
Crenshaw identifies the erasure of Blackness in strides for equality and arbitrary perceptions of ideal femininity and masculinity, which are ironically unattainable to the Black community based on negative perceptions of Blackness.
To provide illustration Crenshaw uses the heteronormative stereotype of women being seen as fragile as unattainable to Black women who are often stereotyped and placed in positions to be strong, angry, and loud.
Unfortunately, although Crenshaw’s work looks to shine light on the erasure of Black women, Crenshaw (a Black Woman) is often erased when discussing intersectionality.
Stop what you’re doing to pay homage to Kimberlé' Crenshaw and “to facilitate the inclusion of marginalized groups for whom it can be said: "When they enter, we all enter."
