Why is intersectionality important to black feminists?

Black feminists saw intersectionality as integral to the distinction between their movement and that of White feminism because “the major source of difficulty in our political work is that we are not just trying to fight oppression on one front or even two, but instead to address a whole range of oppressions” 3.

Who was the first person to use the term intersectionality?

The term “intersectionality” was coined by Black legal theorist Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, in a famous 1989 essay titled ” Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics .”

What do you mean by intersectionality in academia?

Within academia this includes both intersectionality as an interdisciplinary field of study such as race, class, and gender studies and intersectionality as an analytic strategy used to rethink core concepts such as identity.

How does Crenshaw contribute to the theory of intersectionality?

Crenshaw combines literature on critical race theory to examine antiracist and feminist discourse on women of color as victims sexual violence, arguing that racism and sexism act as mutually interlocking systems of oppression, resulting in a form of disadvantage that affects Black women uniquely at three levels.

How does Brah and Phoenix argue for intersectionality?

Brah and Phoenix (2004:80) present an argument for intersectionality: that dimensions of social life (economic, political, cultural, psychic, subjective, and experiential) cannot be divided into singular realms of analysis, but must be addressed in accordance with their ‘contradictory and conflictual relations to each another’.

What does Avtar Brah say about politics of self?

Avtar Brah (1996:10) also considers the politics of self, claiming that the use of ‘I’ or ‘me’ implies an authoritative ‘pre-given reality’ despite the changing nature of identity, and despite the ways in which identity is constructed through narration (or representation).