Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color Lesson Plan

Kimberlé Crenshaw’s “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color” is a classic essay that incorporates the fields of law, Black feminism, and critical race theory—it is in fact one of the key defining works of the latter two. The article analyzes how identity politics marginalizes people of color by failing to see the intersections of race and gender (and racism and sexism). Within identity politics, Crenshaw focuses on feminism and antiracism—movements that are organized around gender and race. Intersectionality describes the phenomenon of overlapping power dynamics that relate to identity categories. For instance, women of color are...