Intersectionality is a simple yet profoundly important concept which was developed by feminist women of color in response to the second wave feminist movement’s adamant refusal to address issues beyond the needs of upper-class white women. It posits that civil rights / social justice movements cannot focus exclusively on any single form of discrimination because oppression is not neatly modular.
Intersectionality is built around the fact that those who experience multiple forms of oppression are always left behind by single-subject movements. This is because single-subject movements inevitably absorb every form of discrimination which they do not examine, and also because single-subject movements are inherently blind to the ways in which multiple forms of discrimination interlock and reinforce each other.
