"The need to split one’s political energies between two sometimes opposing groups is a dimension of intersectional disempowerment that men of color and white women seldom confront. Indeed, their specific raced and gendered experiences, although intersectional, often define as well as confine the interests of the entire group. For example, racism as experienced by people of color who are of a particular gender - male - tends to determine the parameters of antiracist strategies, just as sexism as experienced by women who are of a particular race - white - tends to ground the women’s movements.
The problem is not simply that both discourses fail women of color by not acknowledging the “additional” issue of race of patriarchy but, rather, that the discourses are often inadequate even to the discrete tasks of articulating the full dimensions of racism and sexism. 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 experiences of white women, antiracism and feminism are limited, even on their own terms."
The problem is not simply that both discourses fail women of color by not acknowledging the “additional” issue of race of patriarchy but, rather, that the discourses are often inadequate even to the discrete tasks of articulating the full dimensions of racism and sexism. 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 experiences of white women, antiracism and feminism are limited, even on their own terms."
— Kimberlé Crenshaw
Critically important information here. CRITICAL. And, when Black women speak of our experiences, it is NOT to devalue Black men speaking their truths or White women speaking their truths, though often times us barely opening our mouths is interpreted as such. It’s solely because of an intersectional analysis of our experiences reveal that while there are experiences we share due to shared race and shared gender, there are ones unique to Black women, that of course further delineate when other axes of oppression are considered.
(Source: wretchedoftheearth)
