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Many antecedents to feminist thought on intersectionality stem from black feminism. Intersectionality has been particularly significant in black feminism as the necessity of addressing all oppression is one of the hallmarks of black feminist thought.

Sojourner Truth's 1851 "Ain't I a Woman?" speech, for example, exemplifies intersectionality, in which she spoke from her racialized position as a former slave to critique essentialist notions of femininity.

Anna Julia Cooper brought forth one of the earliest  intersectional perspectives in her book “A Voice From the South” published in 1892. In the book Cooper emphasizes the need to think systematically about oppression and cast doubt on widely accepted epistemic norms that she claims extend social control and reinforce social hierarchy. (Anna Julia Cooper, Visionary Black Feminist 130) Cooper brings a feminist perspective to intersectionality, as she discusses the position of black women who are faced with questions of being black and being a woman. (A Voice From the South 134) Faced with both of these questions in the South Cooper feels that black women face pitfalls that other women do not experience. (A Voice From the South 32) Cooper highlights this through emphasizing the vulnerability of black women in a 19th century legal system that ignores crimes of rape and sexual violence when perpetrated by white men. (Anna Julia Cooper, Visionary Black Feminist 146) Cooper is also critical of the treatment of black women by black men. In her opinion while white women typically receive ample freedom and support from their husbands, black women are typically unsupported and restricted by their more conservative spouses. (A Voice From the South 135) Through these comparisons Cooper highlights the intersection of being black and a woman in the 19th century.

Francis Beale builds upon the writings of Cooper and echoes many of her sentiments, as she describes the dual discrimination of racism and sexism that subjugates black women in : "Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female". While Double Jeopardy is a term coined based on the oppressions that come at the intersection of being black and a woman, Beale also considers how classism plays a role. (The Black Woman An Anthology, Toni Cade Bambara  112) Beale views the the black woman struggle as one of vicious exploitation that includes maligning, sexual exploitation, and economic exploitation at the hands of white colonizers. (The Black Woman An Anthology 112)

While Deborah King acknowledges Beale’s awareness of economic disadvantage as a result of double jeopardy, she critiques her for including class as an autonomous source of oppression. (King 46) King cites the work of Beverly Lindsay who presents classism as a third jeopardy and refers to data showing that the majority of black women have faced comparatively lower wages and some of the poorest living conditions in both rural and urban instances of poverty. (King 46) However, like King is critical of Beale King is also critical of Lindsay and the triple jeopardy model as it treats racism, sexism, and classism as having independent effects on status. (King 47) King argues that this additive approach i.e (racism+sexism+classism =triple jeopardy) is unrepresentative of black women's oppression as it assumes that one factor may supplant the rest.

King instead developed an interactive model coined multiple jeopardy to capture the interdependencies(multiplicative effects) of race, sex and class. I.e. (racism * sexism * classism = multiple jeopardy). This nuance illustrates the compounding effect of class inequality when combined with the dual and systematic discriminations of racism and sexism. (King 43) To further  clarify this point King highlights how black women workers faced equivalent physical labor and brutal punishment to their male counterparts, while also facing sexual exploitation from their white masters. (King 47) This highlights intersectionality in black feminism as black females experiences of sexual oppression are distinguished from that of their white counterparts because of its entanglement with racist and classist forms of domination. (King 47)

The Combahee River Collective elaborated on the idea of intersectionality in the modern era through the introduction of the concept of  interlocking oppression. A black feminist group, the collective was committed to the work of stifling oppression rooted in the interlocking factors of race, sex, and class and defined black feminism at the intersection of sex and race. (Combahee River Collective Statement)

In 1981 Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa published the first edition of This Bridge Called My Back. This anthology explored how classifications of sexual orientation and class also mix with those of race and gender to create even more distinct political categories. Many black, Latina, and Asian writers featured in the collection stress how their sexuality interacts with their race and gender to inform their perspectives. Similarly, poor women of color detail how their socio-economic status adds a layer of nuance to their identities, ignored or misunderstood by middle-class white feminists.

While a lot of intersectional scholarship was done prior to 1989, Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term "intersectionality" in her 1989 paper for the University of Chicago Legal Forum, "Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics." In the paper Crenshaw centers black women in order to contrast the intersectional nature of black women's experience with that of the single-axis(i.e. race or gender) analysis that misrepresents these experiences. Crenshaw highlights the importance of intersectionality by discussing the effects of its non-application in the legal system. Crenshaw explains the case of DeGraffenreid v General Motors to illustrate how considering only sex or race leaves black women marginalized and susceptible to discrimination. In the case this marginalization was the result of anti discrimination law holding race and sex mutually exclusive. Crenshaw discusses the danger of a mutually exclusive approach that results in the centering of white women or privileged blacks, and advocates for an intersectional approach as a solution.

Crenshaw continued to develop her scholarship on intersectionality and identified three aspects of intersectionality that affect the visibility of black women: structural intersectionality, political intersectionality, and representational intersectionality. Structural intersectionality deals with how black women experience domestic violence and rape in a manner qualitatively different than that of white women. Political intersectionality examines how laws and policies intended to increase equality have paradoxically decreased the visibility of violence against black women. Representational intersectionality examines how portrayals of black women in pop culture can obscure their own authentic lived experiences.

According to black feminists and many white feminists, experiences of class, gender, and sexuality cannot be adequately understood unless the influence of racialization is carefully considered. This focus on racialization was highlighted many times by scholar and feminist bell hooks, specifically in her 1981 book Ain't I A Woman: Black Women and Feminism.[28] Feminists argue that an understanding of intersectionality is a vital element of gaining political and social equality and improving our democratic system.[29] Collins's theory represents the sociological crossroads between modern and post-modern feminist thought.[22]

Marie-Claire Belleau argues for "strategic intersectionality" in order to foster cooperation between feminisms of different ethnicities.[30]:51 She refers to different nat-cult (national-cultural) groups that produce unique types of feminisms. Using Québécois nat-cult as an example, Belleau says that many nat-cult groups contain infinite sub-identities within themselves, arguing that there are endless ways in which different feminisms can cooperate by using strategic intersectionality, and that these partnerships can help bridge gaps between "dominant and marginal" groups.[30]:54 Belleau argues that, through strategic intersectionality, differences between nat-cult feminisms are neither essentialist nor universal, but should be understood as resulting from socio-cultural contexts. Furthermore, the performances of these nat-cult feminisms are also not essentialist. Instead, they are strategies.[30]

Similarly, Intersectional theorists like Vrushali Patil argue that intersectionality ought to recognize transborder constructions of racial and cultural hierarchies. About the effect of the state on identity formation, Patil says: "If we continue to neglect cross-border dynamics and fail to problematize the nation and its emergence via transnational processes, our analyses will remain tethered to the spatialities and temporalities of colonial modernity."[31]