The struggle against patriarchy and racism must be substantively robust and inextricably intertwined.
Cultural patterns of oppression are not only interrelated but are bound together and influenced by the intersectional systems of society. Examples of this include race, gender, class, ability, and ethnicity.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights how various forms of oppression are interconnected and shaped by multiple social factors.
In this quote, Kimberle Williams Crenshaw emphasizes the concept of intersectionality, which describes how different forms of discrimination—such as those based on race, gender, class, ability, and ethnicity—do not exist in isolation but instead interact with and influence one another. Understanding these interrelationships is crucial for comprehending the complexities of social justice and oppression, as addressing one aspect without considering others can lead to inadequate solutions.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a social justice seminar, a speaker cites this quote to illustrate the need for a comprehensive approach to addressing inequality.
More from Kimberle Williams Crenshaw
All quotes →I have a wonderful, diverse, and young staff at the AAPF who pretty much work around the clock trying to figure out how we promote the idea that social justice requires us to be intersectional in our thinking and in our scope of vision.
If you don't have a lens that's been trained to look at how various forms of discrimination come together, you're unlikely to develop a set of policies that will be as inclusive as they need to be.
We have to move back to the idea that education isn't about teaching people to bow to rigid rules. That's not what democracy is about.
Having a monolithic view of feminism is suffocating.
We must begin to tell black women's stories because, without them, we cannot tell the story of black men, white men, white women, or anyone else in this country. The story of black women is critical because those who don't know their history are doomed to repeat it.
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It is the mind which creates the world around us, and even though we stand side by side in the same meadow, my eyes will never see what is beheld by yours, my heart will never stir to the emotions with which yours is touched.
There is nothing little in God; His mercy is like Himself-it is infinite. You cannot measure it. His mercy is so great that it forgives great sins to great sinners, after great lengths of time, and then gives great favours and great privileges, and raises us up to great enjoyments in the great heaven of the great God.
A society that gives to one class all the opportunities for leisure, and to another all the burdens of work, dooms both classes to spiritual sterility.
If I could not go to Heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all.
If Christians should vote their duty to God at the polls, they would carry every election, and do it with ease. They would elect every clean candidate in the United States, and defeat every soiled one. Their prodigious power would be quickly realized and recognized, and afterward there would be no unclean candidates upon any ticket, and graft would cease.
We should not forget that our tradition is one of protest and revolt, and it is stultifying to celebrate the rebels of the past ... while we silence the rebels of the present.