Intersectionality – Centering Women of Color (Study Notes)
Learning Objectives
Analyze intersections of race, class, gender & sexuality within U.S. institutions
Critically evaluate how hierarchy & interlocking systems of power (white supremacy, patriarchy, capitalism, cis-heteropatriarchy, imperialism) affect identities linked to race, ethnicity, gender, class, sexuality, religion, national origin & immigration status
Compare & contrast resistance strategies of women of color (WOC) and queer/trans people of color (QTPOC)
8.1 Introduction – Why Intersectionality Matters
Coined term “UndocuQueer” (visual artist Julio Salgado) to signify the complex, often invisible, lived reality where immigration status intersects with queer identity, highlighting the unique challenges and oppressions faced by individuals at this intersection.
Poster “Illegal Faggots for the Destruction of Borders” further illustrates this intersectional resistance:
Rejection of oppressive concepts such as borders, manifest-destiny myths, and colonial land-theft, which historically dispossess and marginalize communities.
Reclaiming derogatory slurs (like “maricón”) to strip them of their power and instead re-center agency and self-determination within marginalized communities.
Intersectionality, as a framework, is the critical study of how overlapping social identities (such as race, gender, class, sexuality) intersect with overlapping structures of power and oppression.
It operates on multiple levels:
Institutional level: Manifests in laws, policies, and systemic practices that create and reinforce inequalities, such as discriminatory immigration laws or employment policies.
Interpersonal level: Evident in daily interactions, microaggressions, and biases that individuals experience based on their multiple identities.
Internalized level: Refers to the way a person’s self-worth and identity are shaped by the societal experience of oppression and discrimination.
Chapter arc: The discussion progresses from the historical origins of intersectionality (rooted in Black and Women of Color feminism) to its practical applications (such as in reproductive justice and the concept of self-love) and ultimately to its visions of collective liberation.
8.2 What Is Intersectionality?
Audre Lorde, a self-described “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet,” offered profound critiques of Western binary logic (e.g., good/bad, dominant/subordinate).
She introduced the concept of a “mythical norm” which represents the idealized standard of power and privilege in society ( ext{white, thin, male, young, heterosexual, Christian, financially secure}).
Lorde warned against the societal pressure to spotlight only one identity fragment (e.g., only race or only gender), arguing that this fragments and weakens individuals. She instead called for embracing the totality of one's identities, emphasizing that strength and revolutionary potential lie in difference and the refusal to be compartmentalized.
Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term “intersectionality” in 1989 to describe the phenomenon where various forms of oppression (such as racism, sexism, classism) intersect and combine to create unique experiences of discrimination.
She used the analogy of a traffic intersection where multiple roads of oppression collide, making it difficult to pinpoint a singular cause of harm.
Her foundational case study involved Emma DeGraffenreid, a Black woman denied a job. The court failed to recognize the dual discrimination she faced as both Black and a woman, applying separate anti-racism and anti-sexism analyses rather than seeing their combined impact. This highlighted how traditional legal frameworks often overlook the unique burdens faced by those at the intersection of marginalized identities.
Crenshaw’s TED exercise on police killings demonstrated that audiences often recalled the names of Black men killed by police but struggled to name Black women killed in similar circumstances, illustrating the “missing frames” through which society perceives and addresses violence.
Graphics by Kay Fischer visually represent these intersecting lines:
Of Oppressions: Including sexism/patriarchy, racism/white supremacy, nativism, ableism, classism, transphobia, and homophobia, showing how they do not operate in isolation but intertwine.
Of Identities: Such as gender, race/ethnicity, citizenship status, class, ability, and sexuality, demonstrating how individuals embody multiple identities simultaneously, each shaped by these systems of power.
Alicia Garza, a co-founder of #BlackLivesMatter, emphasized that the movement explicitly affirms the lives of Black queer, trans, disabled, undocumented, incarcerated, and female individuals. This expansive and inclusive framing is a direct application of intersectional principles, ensuring that the movement addresses the specific vulnerabilities and oppressions faced by diverse Black communities.
WOC & QTPOC Roots 1960 ext{s}–80 ext{s} Movements
During the 1960 ext{s}–80 ext{s}, feminists of color actively confronted multifaceted systems of oppression, including colonialism, racism, sexism, militarism, and capitalist exploitation, often feeling marginalized within larger social movements.
Within nationalist organizations (e.g., Black Power movement), women often faced male chauvinism and were relegated to supportive rather than leadership roles.
Within predominantly white feminism and mainstream gay liberation movements, women of color and queer/trans people of color experienced racism, erasure, and a failure to address their unique intersectional struggles.
This marginalization led directly to the self-organization of Black feminist groups, who explicitly used and defined the term “Black feminist” to encapsulate their dual struggle against racism and sexism.
Key texts preceding the articulation of “intersectionality” laid crucial groundwork:
Sojourner Truth’s powerful speech “Ain’t I a Woman?” (1840s) interrogated the exclusion of Black women from both abolitionist and women's suffrage movements, highlighting their distinct experiences of gendered racism.
Frances Beal’s “Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female” (1969) articulated the compounded oppression faced by Black women due to their race and gender.
Toni Cade Bambara’s anthology The Black Woman (1970) provided a vital platform for Black women’s voices to articulate their experiences and theories.
The Combahee River Collective Statement (1977) explicitly coined the phrase “interlocking systems of oppression,” arguing that the liberation of Black women was intrinsically linked to dismantling capitalism, imperialism, and patriarchy simultaneously.
Trans pioneers Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera were central figures at the Stonewall Inn uprisings and co-founders of STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries).
They frequently faced racism and homophobia/transphobia within the predominantly white gay and lesbian liberation movements.
Rivera’s impassioned “Y’all Better Quiet Down” speech in 1973 at the Gay Pride Rally powerfully demanded inclusion for transgender people and drag queens, who were often excluded from the mainstream gay rights agenda.
8.3 Third World Feminism – Centering WOC
Susan Muaddi Darraj, an Arab-American feminist, critiqued the limitations of “white feminism” (exemplified by figures like Betty Friedan), which often overlooked the struggles of women outside the privileged white, Western experience.
She advocated for a search for Arab and Third-World feminisms, which are rooted in anti-war, anti-imperial, and anti-colonial contexts, recognizing that women in these regions face distinct forms of systemic oppression, often linked to global power dynamics.
Cheryl Johnson-Odim articulated that Third-World women uniquely confront a nexus of gender, class, racism, and imperialism.
The term “Third World” in this context refers both to nations in the Global South (developing countries) and to their diasporas living in First-World (developed) countries.
Johnson-Odim warned that a feminism solely concerned with white, middle-class women's advancement merely ushers a select few into corporate patriarchy, without fundamentally challenging the global structures of exploitation that maintain inequality for the majority.
Alternative labels and theoretical frameworks emerged to better articulate the specific experiences of women of color:
Alice Walker’s “Womanist” concept describes a Black feminist committed to the survival and wholeness of entire Black communities, male and female, focusing on universal liberation rather than just gender equality.
Chicana Feminism: Gloria Anzaldúa’s seminal work Borderlands/La Frontera (1987) explored the concept of mestiza consciousness—a consciousness that arises from living at the crossroads of multiple cultures, languages, and identities (e.g., Mexican, American, Indigenous, queer).
Key concepts include: bocacalle (crossroads/mouth-street), representing the liminal space of cultural and personal synthesis; embracing liminality (living on the threshold, between worlds); and resisting dualisms (binary thinking that forces either/or choices).
Pinayism, developed by Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, is an anti-colonial and decolonial framework centered on the experiences of Filipina women.
It advocates for a radical Pinay sisterhood, engaging in a praxis (theory-informed action) of decolonization, humanization, and deliberate relationship-building. It explicitly links sexism, classism, and neo-colonialism as interconnected systems of oppression impacting Filipina communities.
8.4 Reproductive Justice – History of Control (Part I)
The Reproductive Justice (RJ) framework, articulated by Loretta Ross and others, expands beyond the narrow focus on “choice” to encompass a holistic view of reproductive freedom, asserting three core rights:
The right not to have a child (e.g., access to contraception, abortion).
The right to have a child (e.g., freedom from forced sterilization, access to fertility treatments).
The right to parent children in safe, healthy environments, free from violence, poverty, and discrimination.
RJ also explicitly adds sexual autonomy and gender freedom as essential components, recognizing that reproductive freedom is interconnected with overall bodily and personal liberation.
Historically, population control policies in the U.S. served white expansion and racial subjugation:
A 1662 Virginia law legally passed enslaved status matrilineally (through the mother), making Black women’s fertility a key mechanism for generating property and perpetuating the system of slavery.
The 1692 anti-miscegenation law criminalized interracial relationships and often labeled mixed-race children as “illegitimate,” further controlling racial purity and property lines.
Native genocide strategies included forced marches (like the Trail of Tears), bans on sacred ceremonies, and missionaries policing traditional birth practices, all aimed at devastating Indigenous populations and erasing their cultural heritage.
The 19^{ ext{th}}-century ideal of white motherhood was promoted as virtuous and domestic, contrasting with racialized stereotypes of non-white women.
Abortion remained legal for white women in early pregnancy until the 1820s-1870s, when male physicians, seeking to professionalize medicine and consolidate power, lobbied for bans. This culminated in restrictive legislation like the Comstock Law of 1873, which criminalized the dissemination of information about contraception and abortion.
The Great Migration saw Black women move North seeking better social and economic conditions, including access to contraception and abortion services, which were largely unavailable or unsafe in the South.
Concurrently, Native American boarding-school removals systematically severed families, disrupting cultural transmission and undermining tribal structures by forcibly assimilating Indigenous children.
Exclusion laws, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, combined with anti-miscegenation laws, led to severe gender imbalance within Chinese immigrant communities and imposed strict limits on Chinese births in the U.S.
Eugenics & Mass Sterilization (20^{ ext{th}} C.)
The Jim Crow era, marked by racial segregation and discrimination, converged with the eugenics movement, which advocated for controlling human reproduction to “improve” the genetic quality of the population by sterilizing individuals deemed “socially inadequate” (e.g., non-white, poor, disabled, or mentally ill).
The landmark Supreme Court case Buck v. Bell (1927) legally legitimized forced sterilization, establishing the precedent that states could sterilize individuals deemed unfit against their will.
By 1932, 26 states had eugenics laws, and states like North Carolina performed approximately 8,000 coerced sterilization procedures, with the vast majority targeting Black women.
In 1970, the Nixon administration’s family-planning funds, ostensibly for poverty reduction, disproportionately targeted inner-city, low-income communities, leading to concerns about coercive practices.
The Relf sisters case (1973) exposed the widespread practice of coerced sterilizations, revealing that an estimated 150,000 annual coerced sterilizations were occurring, often without informed consent, particularly among Black women and women of color.
Madrigal v. Quilligan (1975): This class-action lawsuit involved 10 Chicana women who were coercively sterilized at a Los Angeles county hospital shortly after childbirth, often under duress or without understanding consent forms. Though the case was lost, it significantly spurred reforms requiring Spanish-language consent forms and strict protocols for obtaining informed consent for medical procedures.
Puerto Rico “operaciones” (1930s–1960s): A U.S.-backed population control program led to the sterilization of an astounding 35 ext{%} of women in Puerto Rico by 1965, making it one of the highest rates in the world. These sterilizations were often performed without full informed consent, sometimes promoted as