How Does Kimberle Crenshaw Define Intersectionality?

Kimberle Crenshaw coined the term intersectionality in this very essay. Her usage of the term was in conjunction with Black women in the United States and how they are being oppressed because of their race and gender. Crenshaw focuses on gender and race in this very paper, she argues that race and gender should be looked at as cohesive terms, rather than different frameworks in cases that involve Black women that encounter a combination of sex and racial discrimination. This is looking more beyond than racism and sexism, it is building solidarity between the lines of structural differences. Crenshaw uses the metaphor of traffic intersection and crossroads to better illustrate the meaning of intersectionality. Traffic like discrimination flows
from one direction, if an accident occurs it’s a result of cars coming from various directions. Likewise, if a Black woman were to face discrimination, her wound can be a result of various structural differences; such as race and sex. Crenshaw is a very important scholar, especially one that is a strong advocate for breaking social, political and cultural boundaries that have been used to categorize and devalue human experiences. Therefore, I need to use Crenshaw’s piece to build and improve my paper as she uses intersectionality to build solidarity across differences. An important matter that Crenshaw raises is that Black women are often unnoticed in feminist theory because often times race and gender are not viewed as interconnected issues. Which I find important because although feminist theory disrupts structural differences, it can also play a role in it if it’s not done efficiently. Thus, Crenshaw is a crucial part of my paper, as she uses her work to approach structural differences through the term intersectionality.