Kimberlé Crenshaw, a distinguished professor of law at both the UCLA School of Law and Columbia University Law School, recently was on Cosmopolitan’s list of black women, past and present, that “every American should know.” Among the 10 were California U.S. Senator Kamala Harris and filmmaker and UCLA alumna Ava DuVernay.
In 1989, Crenshaw coined the term “intersectionality” as a way to explain the unique kinds of discrimination black women experience because of racist and sexist institutional practices, according to the magazine. Today, the term “intersectionality” enjoys wide usage, but frequently, Crenshaw’s pioneering work to bring the concept to bear in questions of social justice has been overlooked, Cosmopolitan’s author Brittney Cooper wrote.
Crenshaw’s concept of intersectionality remains more important than ever, as it teaches how to think about the variety of ways womanhood is affected by race, class sexuality, and other factors, Cooper said.
Crenshaw founded The African American Policy Forum, a think tank that works to dismantle structural inequality. Her primary scholarly interests center around race and the law.
Source: UCLA
