Notes

“Because women of color experience racism in ways not always the same as those experience by men of color and sexism in ways not always parallel to experiences of white women, anti racism and feminism are limited, even on their own terms” (Crenshaw 1252)

“The prism of a U.S. Third World Feminist consciousness has shifted as we turned our gaze <em>away</em> from a feminism prescribed by white women of privilege (even in opposition to them) and turned <em>toward</em> the process of discerning the multilayered and intersecting sites of identity and struggle—distinct and shared—among women of color across the globe” (moraga 16)



The idea of intersectionality is not a new one, but a truly expansive and diverse social justice ideology must recognize that it isn’t enough to merely acknowledge the different degrees of oppression and discrimination that people of multiple identities face. Dominant feminist ideologies are centered around white women and therefore inherently cannot adequately rectify the racialized gender violence that women of color face; similarly, antiracist practices are centered around men of color and cannot address the gendered racial violence that women of color face.

In recognizing these limitations of dominant conceptions of feminism and anti-racism, however, women of color are then able to eschew forms of social justice which don’t suit their needs. Instead, they are able to create a truly inclusive and diverse form of social justice which recognizes and seeks to address their unique experiences with oppression and discrimination as women of color rather than just as women or as people of color.