White Feminism vs. Intersectional Feminism Session with Selam Debs Intersectionality was coined by Black law professor and civil rights activist Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw who coined the term in 1989 and explained Intersectional feminism as, “a prism for seeing the way in which various forms of inequality often operate together and exacerbate each other.”

 

All inequality is not created equal and an intersectional approach shows the way that people’s social identities such as race, gender, class, sexuality or immigrant status can overlap, creating compounding experiences of discrimination.

 

In this session, Selam will be speaking about the ways in which White Feminism, which is the dominant narrative in understanding women’s rights has extracted, exploited and co-opted Black Feminist movements in order to center White supremacy as the essential power structure.

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We will explore how intersectional feminism centers the voices of those experiencing overlapping, concurrent forms of oppression in order to understand the depths of the inequities and the relationships within systems.

 

We cannot advocate for the rights of women, trans, non-binary and 2SLGBTQ+ communities and folks with disabilities without the impacts of racial injustice at the forefront. And we cannot advocate for racial justice if we are not actively naming and dismantling White supremacy and the social and structural outcomes it produces.