Kimberle Williams Crenshaw's Article 'Mapping The Margins'

Race, Gender, and Class

In the 1980s, Kimberle Williams Crenshaw through her article, named Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color, introduces the term “Intersectionality.” The arguments and research in the article offers an insightful and probing look into the current racial and gender climate of our culture. It tells about how various categories such as gender, race, and class interact on similar levels and leading to the cause of social inequality. It also holds several forms of social oppression in our society and thus creating multiple distinct types of discrimination. She also explains how race and gender oppression interact through Black women’s lives. Through her article, Kimberle …show more content…
Crenshaw has an excess of information and examples to cite which show how race with gender has been entirely neglected in some certain cases. The author further contains the overall argument into speaking strictly in terms of violence against women, and how violence against women of color is treated and viewed as being the same as violence against women in general, completely ignoring the different social structures which affect only color women but white women. Racist and stereotyping of color people cause many very unfair treatments to them. There are many kinds of racism and prejudiced; neither of them is fair. Unintentionally, people make difficult situations to different races. However, no one would like to be discriminated from others. Thus, everyone should learn the difference between different cultures, countries and religions. No one should be discriminated by their races, religions, or appearances such as skin colors. Again, Crenshaw brings so much evidence to her point, “the separate and distinct plights of women of color are not recognized by any other vocal group as being anything noteworthy.” Through Crenshaw’s attitude, she further perpetuates this belief of their own negligible experiences in the minds of those similar …show more content…
In her article, Crenshaw shows that structural intersectionality discloses the ways in which an individual’s legal status or social needs isolate them such as the convergence of identity statuses. Crenshaw cites the example of rape counseling for women of color, noting that the specific convergence of socioeconomic status, race, and gender makes it less likely that poor women of color will receive the assistance they need if resources are allocated according to the standards of need of racially and economically privileged women. On the other hand, political intersectionality highlights the different and possibly conflicting needs and goals from which an individual draws his identity. Crenshaw uses the example of Black women whose political energies are often split between social action agendas based on race and on gender. Neither alone may effectively address the specific concerns or most pressing needs of Black women themselves. Crenshaw’s analysis reminds us that the nature of the experience varies. Her analysis also highlights the fact that the individual’s experience of intersecting identities must be distinguished from the ways that intersection is shown in our larger