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Intersectionality
Kimberle Crenshaw introduced the theory of intersectionality to feminist theory in the 1980’s. Although the concept of intersectionality was not new it was not formally recognized until Crenshaw’s theory. Her inspiration for the theory started while she was still in college and she realized that the gender aspect of race was extremely underdeveloped. The realization came after she noticed at the school she was attending that there were classes offered that addressed both race and gender issues. The courses available discussed women in only literature and poetry classes while men were discussed in serious politics and economics.  Crenshaw has received multiple degrees in law including her LL.M (Masters in Law) and J.D (Professional Doctorate degree in Law). So her focus on intersectionality is more so focused on how the law responds to issues that include gender and race discrimination. The particular challenge in law is that antidiscrimination laws look at gender and race separately and consequently African American women and other women of color experience overlapping forms of discrimination and the law unaware of how to combine the two leave these women with no justice. Antidiscrimination laws and the justice systems attempt for a remedy to discrimination is limited and operates on a singular axes when one flows into another a complete and understandable definition has not been written in law therefore when the issue of intersectionality is presented in the court of law if one form of discrimination cannot be proved without the other than there is no law broken. The law defines discrimination of singular cases where you can only be discriminated based one thing or the other so when enforcing the law they go solely by the definition and if discrimination cannot be proved based on the single definition of one discrimination or the other then there is no crime committed.

She brings up the case DeGraffenreid v. General Motors in multiple writings, interviews, and lectures where a group of African American women went to court with the argument that they were receiving compound discrimination. Only men were given jobs in the factory allowing opportunities for African American men and women were seen as appropriate hires for office and secretarial jobs but only white women were being hired so in a nutshell there left no opportunities for African American women to seek employment in that company. When the courts heard the argument they asked the women to prove the fact that they were discriminated against by race and gender separately. Since African America men were being employed that disproved racial discrimination and since white women were being employed that disproved gender discrimination. The courts unable to find a medium and not wanting to seem as if they were allotting African American women special privilege over everyone else the case was dismissed and the women were not granted success.

Some accounts that Crenshaw refers to when addressing the theory of intersectionality are: -	In 1991 Crenshaw was a part of the legal team for Anita Hill the women that accused then- Supreme Court Nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment. The case drew two crowds to the plate one being white feminist and the opposing group being those of the African American community that supported Clarence Thomas. The two arguments that were brought up were the rights of women and Hills experience of being violated as a women and then the arguments of the African American community that sought to forgive him or turn a blind eye to his sins for the simple fact that he was being given a position of power that not many African Americans were given. Crenshaw argues that with these two groups rising up against one another during this case Anita Hill loss her voice as a black female. She had been unintentionally chosen to support the women side of things and reject her racial contribution to the issue. Crenshaw describes how she felt, witnessing large crowds of black women protesting in support of Clarence Thomas: “It was like one of these moments where you literally feel that you have been kicked out of your community, all because you are trying to introduce and talk about the way that African American women have experienced sexual harassment and violence. It was a defining moment.” “Many women who talk about the Anita Hill thing,” Crenshaw adds, “they celebrate what’s happened with women in general…. So sexual harassment is now recognized; what’s not doing as well is the recognition of black women’s unique experiences with discrimination.” -	Crenshaw notes the deep seated racism that was displayed by white Americans after the “Not Guilty” verdict of O.J. Simpson. This issue wasn’t that a murder was allowed to walk free, or that the justice system is faulty, but white Americans at the time resorted back to post civil rights where if a black man was accused of harming a white women no matter what they were guilty and should be punished. This was an issue of race and gender where back in the day black were seen as a risk to white women. -	To bring it closer to date Crenshaw comments on another interracial homicide that happened in 2012 where George Zimmerman shot and killed an African American teen Tayvon Martin. Crenshaw said “When jurors assess the reasonableness of the claim of self-defense, that assessment can’t help but have race and gender dimensions to it…. The threat is attached to the Black body. The idea that a Black person might feel threatened by a White person is almost incomprehensible.”