How To Be A Liberal: The Story of Freedom and the Fight for its Survival

by Ian Dunt

Crenshaw was bringing a welcome dose of complexity to what had been binary opposition around race – white/black – and gender – man/woman. Intersectionality argued that people’s lives were formed from multiple axes of social division, which worked together and influenced each other. They included not just race and gender, but also class, sexuality, disability, ethnicity, nation, religion and age. Examining anti-discrimination legislation, Crenshaw showed how black women were ignored by a legal system that was designed to prevent racism and sexism, but not their own unique form of disadvantage. Her approach helped to make the group identity discussion much more complex and ensured there was a focus on those who were marginalised within groups. But this was not a rejection of identity politics. It was an attempt to make it more sophisticated. Like the Combahee collective before her, Crenshaw believed there was something valuable in a political commitment to identity.