Quotes from Kimberle Williams Crenshaw

Intersectionality draws attention to invisibilities that exist in feminism, in anti-racism, in class politics, so, obviously, it takes a lot of work to consistently challenge ourselves to be attentive to aspects of power that we don't ourselves experience.

Suspension and expulsion are tied to a host of short- and long-term consequences. For some students, zero-tolerance policies in schools lead directly to involvement in the criminal justice system.

The better we understand how identities and power work together from one context to another, the less likely our movements for change are to fracture.

Cultural patterns of oppression are not only interrelated but are bound together and influenced by the intersectional systems of society. Examples of this include race, gender, class, ability, and ethnicity.

All too often, girls are ignored because their challenges aren't thought to be as serious as those faced by boys.

Censorship is certainly not the answer to controversial material and is inconsistent with our most basic constitutional values.

Our democracy cannot be left in the hands of those who would rather watch or participate in a train wreck than stop it.

Some of the worst racist tragedies in history have been perfectly legal.

The point of feminism is you shouldn't have to be a man to be treated with equal respect.

I think the O.J. Simpson trial was a revelation about the ongoing patterns of racial difference in American society.

In a true democracy, there has to be a line between deliberative debate and mob rule. Trump has crossed the line, and much of the media has exacerbated the problem by treating his remarks as entertainment, effectively encouraging his competition to do the same.

At the core of conservative social policy about race are old ideas that link racial inequality to non-traditional family formation and its attendant culture of poverty.

To never think about race means that it doesn't really shape your life, or more specifically, the race that you have is not a burden to you.

In every generation and in every intellectual sphere and in every political moment, there have been African American women who have articulated the need to think and talk about race through a lens that looks at gender or think and talk about feminism through a lens that looks at race.

Social media makes it possible to go underneath a story, which sometimes abruptly ends.

'Separate but unequal' didn't work in respect to race, it doesn't work in respect to gender, and it especially doesn't work when looking at the intersection of race and gender.

The empowerment of black women constitutes the empowerment of our entire community.

I have a wonderful, diverse, and young staff at the AAPF who pretty much work around the clock trying to figure out how we promote the idea that social justice requires us to be intersectional in our thinking and in our scope of vision.

Clearly, we must denounce militaristic approaches to global unrest and find life-affirming ways to end repressive cycles of violence rooted in discrimination, humiliation, and despair.

I think it's useful to recall that a lot of these statutes like 'disrupting the classroom' or 'disturbing the peace' have long been historically used to oppress and criminalize black people.

We are a society that has been structured from top to bottom by race. You don't get beyond that by deciding not to talk about it anymore. It will always come back; it will always reassert itself over and over again.

While many Americans agree that 'the system is rigged' economically, few are aware of the ways in which racial inequality has been structured and embedded in our society. This is why candid, fact-based discussions about racial inequality are so desperately needed.

The struggle against patriarchy and racism must be substantively robust and inextricably intertwined.

If you don't have a lens that's been trained to look at how various forms of discrimination come together, you're unlikely to develop a set of policies that will be as inclusive as they need to be.