Kimberlé Crenshaw

So later, the discourse of the most oppressed kind of catches on some in academia or the left, and that really directly comes out of Newton's theorizations of the Black Panther Party.

Though then it wasn't about identifying a single person who's the most oppressed, it's about identifying, to use later language, intersections of experience to help develop a theoretical analysis that will allow one to grasp multiple vectors of oppression, right? Actually, to that point, as I kind of invoke Kimberly Crenshaw a bit and the Combahee River Collective, it's rarely acknowledged the Combahee River Collective consisted of many former Panthers and a lot of their language in that famous statement draws directly from some of Newton's writings or his speech at Boston College in 1970.

kind of returning to the matter of how Newton conceptualized the flux of experience, he did not think of a political party, for instance, as a matter of rank and file members existing within some structure, but rather as an organized channeling of people's experiences.

So under colonial conditions, Elites of people in power do channel our experiences in particular ways whether you want to call it an algorithm whether you want to call it the structures of trauma Political institutions culture.

Like I was over six feet tall.

And I was aware at some point like, oh, you know, it's sort of the – The bear scratching the surface of what Professor Kimberly Crenshaw sort of coined as intersectionality.

My identity is as a black man, not as a black person and as a man.

It is a black man.

One thing I also saw is people saying, oh, second wave feminism didn't care about Black women.

And then I saw some of the most important Black women feminists in this country speak up, including Angela Davis and Kimberlé Crenshaw, who coined the word intersectional to mean The way that race and gender and other factors all kind of shape each other into a different kind of status or experience.

And Steinem... did huge things with her.

But then it also comes back to something I've been talking about since Hope in the Dark.

And when they showed up in their service lines, TKO and their members were clear like, we are more than excited and happy to serve and support you, but when you come here, you must also respect us and treat us with dignity and care as Black queer trans people.

So I share that example because when we look at intersectionality, Kimberly Crenshaw has taught us this well, when we are able to center the needs of those that have been most impacted, most dislocated and disinvested in, when we center them in the strategies and the decisions and how resources move, they are more able to then set up strategies to support their communities.

And then those strategies actually end up having a ripple effect in meeting the needs of others that are just one circle outside of them and another circle outside of them.

So that's what we seek to do with Katali, resource those that are most directly impacted, understanding the ripple effects that that can have, and to do it in a way where we center their dignity and their self-determination.

That's bit.ly slash UTB51 underscore roundtable.

I'm Kimberlé Crenshaw, and this is Intersectionality Matters, the podcast that brings intersectionality to life by exploring the hidden dimensions of today's most pressing issues, from Say Her Name to the war on woke, DEI and CRT, and the global rise of fascism.

This Idea Travelogue lifts up the work of leading activists, artists, and scholars and helps listeners understand politics, the law, social movements, and even their own lives in deeper, more nuanced ways.

Listeners, welcome back to Intersectionality Matters.

Our technical producer is Marlon Bonney.

To support our show, subscribe, leave a review, follow us on social media, and donate to the African American Policy Forum.

Copies of my latest book, Backtalker, An American Memoir, are available at KimberlyCrenshaw.com. I'm your host, Kimberlé Crenshaw.

We'll be back soon.

Ça a commencé aux États-Unis notamment.

Patricia Hill Collins est une figure, Kimberlé Crenshaw en est une autre.

On connaît ces noms-là.

Sirma Bilge au Québec.

To support our show, subscribe, leave a review, follow us on social media, and donate to the African American Policy Forum.

Copies of my latest book, Back Talker: An American Memoir, are available at KimberlyCrenshaw.com. I'm your host, Kimberlé Crenshaw.

We'll be back soon.

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