KIMBERLE CRENSHAW’S CONCEPT OF INTERSECTIONALITY

Kimberle Crenshaw’s concept of intersectionality is considered to have transformed what was formerly seen as isolated and individual within the discourse of identity-based politics. It denotes the various ways in which race and gender interact to shape the many dimensions of a black women’s experience. The premise is: many experiences black women face cannot be considered within the traditional boundaries of race or gender discrimination. Rather, the intersection of racism and sexism factors into black women’s lives in ways that cannot be captured by simply looking at the single dimensions of race or gender in those experiences separately. 

Essentially, intersectionality seeks to demonstrate the variations within race and gender and gives attention to subjects whose identities contest race-or-gender categorizations. In so doing, it centers the experiences of subjects whose voices have been ignored. This significantly contributes to and enables a more robust analysis of cultural sites that involve both race and gender.