The struggle against patriarchy and racism must be substantively robust and inextricably intertwined.
There are many, many different kinds of intersectional exclusions - not just black women but other women of color. Not just people of color, but people with disabilities. Immigrants. LGBTQ people. Indigenous people.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the multifaceted nature of discrimination faced by various marginalized groups in society.
Kimberle Williams Crenshaw emphasizes the complexity of societal exclusions that affect not only black women but also a diverse array of marginalized groups including other women of color, individuals with disabilities, immigrants, LGBTQ individuals, and Indigenous peoples. Her words encourage us to recognize and address these intersecting inequalities, understanding that social justice requires an inclusive approach to advocacy and support.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion on diversity and inclusion practices at work, this quote can be used to underline the importance of recognizing various dimensions of exclusion.
More from Kimberle Williams Crenshaw
All quotes →I have a wonderful, diverse, and young staff at the AAPF who pretty much work around the clock trying to figure out how we promote the idea that social justice requires us to be intersectional in our thinking and in our scope of vision.
If you don't have a lens that's been trained to look at how various forms of discrimination come together, you're unlikely to develop a set of policies that will be as inclusive as they need to be.
We have to move back to the idea that education isn't about teaching people to bow to rigid rules. That's not what democracy is about.
Having a monolithic view of feminism is suffocating.
We must begin to tell black women's stories because, without them, we cannot tell the story of black men, white men, white women, or anyone else in this country. The story of black women is critical because those who don't know their history are doomed to repeat it.
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'The Accursed' is very much a novel about social injustice as the consequence of the terrible, tragic division of classes - the exploitation not only of poor and immigrant workers but of their young children in factories and mills - and as the consequence of race hatred in the aftermath of the Civil War and the freeing of the slaves.
What does it say about our society that we invest more in a golf course than the homes of Black and brown Americans?
Once labeled a felon, you are ushered into a parallel social universe. You can be denied the right to vote, automatically excluded from juries, and legally discriminated against in employment, housing, access to education and public benefits - forms of discrimination that we supposedly left behind.
For people of color - especially African Americans - the idea that racist cops might frame members of their community is no abstract notion, let alone an exercise in irrational conspiracy theorizing. Rather, it speaks to a social reality about which blacks are acutely aware.
I am weary seeing our laboring classes so wretchedly housed, fed, and clothed, while thousands of dollars are wasted every year over unsightly statues. If these great man must have outdoor memorials, let them be in the form of handsome blocks of buildings for the poor
The default of our society is the reproduction of racial inequality. I mean, that's what it does; that's what it's been doing for hundreds of years.