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Mapping the Margins

Kimberlé Crenshaw

Intersectionality

It is the canonical statement of intersectionality and a cornerstone of contemporary identity politics.

Synopsis

A foundational essay arguing that women of color experience violence and discrimination at the intersection of race and gender, which single-axis frameworks miss.

Core passage idea

Paraphrase · Modern copyrighted work

When systems of race and gender bias overlap, the people caught at their intersection fall through the gaps of both single-issue remedies.

It names intersectionality as a tool for seeing harms that fragmented anti-discrimination thinking renders invisible.

To avoid a bubble

Pair with The Subjection of Women.

Reading note

Read it as a legal-theory essay; the structural, political, and representational forms of intersectionality structure it.

Best paired with

The Subjection of Women

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