Kimberly Crenshaw is someone who I’ve studied before in WGSS classes both here at the University of Richmond and at my previous school, the University of South Carolina. We mainly went in depth about the term she coined as intersectionality in WGSS 279, Feminist and Queer Theory. The part about identity politics stood out to me in the reading. She mentions, “Ignoring difference within groups contributes to tension among groups” (Crenshaw, 1242). This reminded me of my Feminist and Queer Theory class when we discussed how early days, white middle-class female suffragists tended to exclude women who didn’t identify as similarly to them. This could include women of color who could more closely identify with men of color than their white counterparts or class differences, among others. Crenshaw states that her objective in this article is to advance the telling of that location by exploring the race and gender dimensions of violence against women of color. Their intersectionality can lead to different experiences between them and white women, white men, and even men of color. She says that the problem with identity politics is that it frequently conflates or ignores intragroup differences, with race and class being extremely big factors in this discussion. Something particularly meaningful to me, as a woman of color, is how she mentions this particular product of intersectionality. I have encountered racism and sexism, as I’m sure other women of color have, and I have also noticed, as Crenshaw states, that these experiences are not typically represented within the discourses of feminism or anti-racism. Because it is typically seen as one or the other, she says this neglects one, both, or multiple identities. I thought her example of the physical assault of women in shelters was incredibly powerful. She attributes this to the manifestation of subordination as a result of the gender and class oppression that brought them into the shelter in the first place. As many of them are victims of domestic violence, she makes a point to also point out how, on top of dealing with the results of that violence, there are initial hurdles to overcome within the shelter as well. Cultural barriers, limited access to resources, and the fear of deportation are just some of the many challenges faced by women of color, especially immigrant women of color. It is essential to note the different obstacles and varied experiences faced by immigrant women of color, as well as the disproportionately high unemployment among people of color that separates their experiences and ability to rely on support networks. Something that really stood out to me was the choice that was outlined for many undocumented women of color, in particular, this choice between remaining in a situation involving domestic violence or being deported or endangering the security of their family. Language also serves as a barrier regarding shelter and seeking help. This all goes to show how our legal system, through Congress and others, has hurt a multitude of intersectional identities by passing anti-immigration policies, among others. There is an experience unique to women of color that can separate them from other minority identities, such as men of color and white women, due to the intersection of their multiple identities and the failure to address how sexism and racism (among others) are experienced differently and simultaneously by this group. I am going to leave off with an essential quote from the reading as I believe it really sums up the whole point that Crenshaw was conveying, “Because women of color experience racism in ways not always the same as those experienced by men of color and sexism in ways not always parallel to the experiences of white women, antiracism and feminism are limited, even on their own terms” (Crenshaw, 1252).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kimberly Crenshaw is someone who I’ve studied before in WGSS classes both here at the University of Richmond and at my previous school, the University of South Carolina. We mainly went in depth about the term she coined as intersectionality … Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6220,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[195],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discussion"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/criticalracetheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/criticalracetheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/criticalracetheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/criticalracetheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6220"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/criticalracetheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/criticalracetheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":339,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/criticalracetheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334\/revisions\/339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/criticalracetheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/criticalracetheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/criticalracetheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}