Foundations of Intersectionality
This framework analyzes how overlapping systems of power shape lived experience.
What is intersectionality?
In the GM case, the plaintiffs argued discrimination against this specific group.
Who are black women?
An idea that exists because society collectively agrees upon it.
What is a social construct?
Identity assigned by society based on race, gender, or class.
What is ascribed identity?
The legal scholar who coined the term “intersectionality”
Who is Kimberlé Crenshaw?
The court rejected the case because it treated race and gender as this.
What are separate and unrelated categories?
Race was historically developed during this era to justify hierarchy.
What is the colonial era?
Identity actively claimed or chosen by the individual.
What is avowed identity?
This 1976 case exposed the legal system’s inability to recognize compounded discrimination.
What is De Graffenreid v. General Motors?
Intersectionality critiques anti-discrimination law for being structured around this narrow framework.
What is a single-category (single-axis) framework?
This process marks certain groups as deviant or inferior to maintain dominance.
What is constructing the Other?
Avowed identity reflects personal this.
What is agency?
Intersectionality is most concerned with examining access to this
What is power?
Intersectionality argues discrimination may occur at this level beyond individual bias.
What is the institutional or systemic level?
The concept that racial categories were designed to determine who holds this.
What is power?
When institutional barriers limit how one’s avowed identity is recognized, this demonstrates structural what?
What is inequality?
Intersectionality emerged from this broader movement for civil rights and feminist legal critique.
What is Critical Race Theory (or Black feminist thought)?
Intersectionality pushes courts to recognize discrimination as this lived experience rather than isolated events.
What is multidimensional?
The “ideal social identity” typically aligns with this demographic group.
Who are white men?