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Information from Non-Dominant Perspectives

Intersectionality

Intersectionality draws attention to invisibilities that exist in feminism, in anti-racism, in class politics, so, obviously, it takes a lot of work to consistently challenge ourselves to be attentive to aspects of power that we don't ourselves experience.

-Kimberle Williams Crenshaw, 2014

The Intersection of Identity, Power Relations, and Identity

"Cultural patterns of oppression are not only interrelated but are bound together and influenced by the intersectional systems of society. Examples of this include race, gender, class, ability, and ethnicity."

     -Kimberle Williams Crenshaw, 1989

 

Suggested Readings 

"No other group in America has so had their identity socialized out of existence as have black women... When black people are talked about the focus tends to be on black men; and when women are talked about the focus tends to be on white women."

     -bell hooks, 1991

 

Suggested Readings 

"I will have my serpent's tongue - my woman's voice, my sexual voice, my poet's voice. I will overcome the tradition of silence."

-Gloria Anzaldua, 2001

 

Suggested Readings 

*Feminism is included here as a topic for reference but according the the Howard Law Library, "The issues that divided early suffragettes still plague women today. For all the progress that has been made, women's rights activists have also taken steps backwards. Feminism, as a movement, has not done a good job at being inclusive of minorities. Women of color have been left on the peripheries while feminism largely caters to white viewpoints."  

Read more about the history of feminism and intersectionality from the Howard University Law Library.

Intersectionality and Critical Race Theory

"Critical reflection needs a powerful understanding of the relation between oppression and the intersection of gender, sexuality, class, and race. A reflection carried out without that kind of understanding risks reinforcing oppression and injustice."

-Mattson, 2013

 

Suggested Readings 

Decentering Whiteness

"Learning to identify and employ race, class, and gender as fundamental categories of description and analysis is essential if we wish to understand our own lives and our nations' social, political, and economic institutions." 

-Paula Rothenberg, 1997

 

Suggested Readings