Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex

Summary, part 1

Introduction

In this article, Crenshaw sets out to answer one question: Why is viewing antidiscrimination theory and praxis/practice (specifically, feminist theory and antiracist politics) from a single-axis framework problematic? The single-axis framework Crenshaw refers to is the idea that "dominant conceptions of discrimination condition us to think about subordination ... occurring under a single categorical axis" (p. 140). What Crenshaw means here is that under the current antidiscrimination doctrine (i.e., the legal, social, and political mechanisms in which disadvantaged groups strive for equality), it is believed that people can only be discriminated against because of one single identity. Although Crenshaw's ideas in this essay have been applied to a wide range of identities since the paper's publication, her article focuses solely on Black women's intersectional struggles.

Crenshaw’s thesis is that viewing antidiscrimination with this framework is problematic for two reasons. First, doing so erases Black women from the “conceptualization, identification, and remediation of race and sex discrimination by limiting inquiry to the experiences of otherwise-privilege members of the group” (p. 140). This means that the single-axis framework of antidiscrimination forces Black women to fit their experiences of discrimination into the dominant conception of discrimination, which is molded by those who are only singularly disadvantaged (e.g., white women are singularly disadvantaged because they would be advantaged if they were not women).

Second, the single-axis framework is problematic because it excludes Black women from feminist theory and antiracist policy discourse. This marginalization occurs because both feminist and antiracist movements are shaped by dominant conceptions of discrimination, which subsequently excludes the less dominant groups who are disadvantaged in multiple ways.

Crenshaw defends her thesis in two parts. First, by showing how the antidiscrimination framework disregards and complicates intersectionality using three court cases as examples. Second, by showing how doctrinal manifestations of the single-axis framework marginalizes Black women in feminist theory and antiracist politics, using theoretical and political developments as examples