In Kimberlé Crenshaw’s article, Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color, she explains in depth about, both the structural and political aspects of intersectionality, including rape and domestic abuse. Crenshaw uses her analysis of such violence against women, specifically women of color and expresses the importance of intersectionality. She also finds it important to engage with issues such as violence against women, through an intersectional lens or viewpoint. She stated that her objective for this article was to “advance the telling of that location by exploring the race and gender dimensions of violence against women of color.” Kimberlé exhibits the intersection of identity politics that proves the experiences of colored women different from white women. Crenshaw divided intersectionality into structural and political intersectionality in order to build her argument.
In her section on structural intersectionality, she states in which ways, domestic violence differs between colored and white women. Crenshaw explained that women of color, unlike white women, often have “multilayered and routinized forms of domination …hindering their ability to create alternatives to the abusive relationships”. To me, that means that no matter what they are doing they are always overpowered by people of other races and gender. Women of color are also often neglected and given stereotypes that often prevent them from escaping from things such as poverty or abuse for example.
As another important example, Crenshaw implicates immigrant women and explains how cultural and language barriers continually contribute to their experience as battered women. Women of color often become imprisoned into a life of abuse and violence, despite laws created to defend their safety. Her section on political intersectionality, is described as a conflict of categorization that women of color experience mostly with issues of sexism and racism. She states that women of color fall into problems of intersectionality and are often excluded from civil rights issues because anti-racism strategies are usually developed by men of color and anti-sexist strategies by white women. Women of color in turn, are receiving no political or social justice. Women of color are often denied justice in domestic violence cases due to false presumptions that have been created.
Kimberlé Crenshaw 