"Black Feminism and Intersectionality"

This article explores what "intersectionality" is and why it is necessary in the context of feminism.  For the purposes of this article, intersectionality requires that when speaking of social ills through a feminist lens we also consider race and class.  Without a discussion of intersectionality, we can only explore the experiences of women in a limited and exclusionary way; what immediately comes to my mind is the Twitter hashtag "feminism is for white women."  This article should be a required read in Women's Studies classes and for anyone who subscribes to feminism.

Tl;dr
"Black legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term 'intersectionality' in her insightful 1989 essay, Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics. The concept of intersectionality is not an abstract notion but a description of the way multiple oppressions are experienced." 
"[Crenshaw] argues that Black women are frequently absent from analyses of either gender oppression or racism, since the former focuses primarily on the experiences of white women and the latter on Black men.  She seeks to challenge both feminist and antiracist theory and practice that neglect to 'accurately reflect the interaction of race and gender,' arguing that 'because the intersectional experience is greater than the sum of racism and sexism, any analysis that does not take intersectionality into account cannot sufficiently address the particular manner in which Black women are subordinated.'"
"Because of the historic role of slavery and racial segregation in the United States, the development of a unified women’s movement requires recognizing the manifold implications of this continuing racial divide. While all women are oppressed as women, no movement can claim to speak for all women unless it speaks for women who also face the consequences of racism—which place women of color disproportionately in the ranks of the working class and the poor. Race and class therefore must be central to the project of women’s liberation if it is to be meaningful to those women who are most oppressed by the system."