Understanding Kimberle Crenshaw’s Landmark Essay on Intersectionality (with Tori Williams Douglass)

What happens when the law can't see you? This episode dives into Kimberle Crenshaw’s landmark 1989 essay on intersectionality, exploring how courts systematically erase Black women. Becky and Tori break down Crenshaw’s trapdoor metaphor, legal analysis, and the continuing relevance of intersectional feminism today.

This week’s text

✍️ “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex” by Kimberlé Crenshaw

This week’s guest

Tori, aka Tori, Etc., is a neurodivergent speaker and educator on deconstructing fundamentalism, white supremacy, and internalized misogyny. Raised in a far-right religious household, she now brings sharp analysis and vulnerable storytelling to conversations about identity, power, and liberation.

Find TORI

🌐 https://instagram.com/tori.etc
🎧 https://www.torietc.com/podcast
📱 https://www.instagram.com/tori.etc

Discussed in this episode

• The legal system’s failure to recognize Black women’s intersectional oppression
• Crenshaw’s trapdoor and street intersection metaphors
• Gaslighting in law and social discourse
• Moynihan Report and structural racism
• The burden of perfectionism in white supremacy and capitalism
• Personal narratives of unlearning from fundamentalism

Resource mentioned

• "My Grandmother’s Hands" by Resmaa Menakem

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