Demarginalizing women of color in intersectionality scholarship in psychology: A Black feminist critique

Abstract

AbstractPsychology's disciplinary interests and methodological norms lead psychologists to look for intersectionality at the level of individuals and variables, with an attendant focus on identities rather than social structures of inequality. Accordingly, many social science approaches reframe intersectionality as a tool to understand complexity, rather than oppression and liberation. At the same time, social science scholars deploying intersectionality frameworks have moved the focus of the analytic framework away from the particular subject position and social location of Black women and the vulnerabilities they face. In these ways, even at a moment when intersectionality is exceedingly visible in social science, including psychology, women of color are not visible in that success. These trends represent not only an injustice but also a threat to the radical potential of intersectionality to transform scholarship and practice. This article aims to recenter women of color in this special issue by discussing what the collected papers can tell us about the lives of women of color, their status as creators of knowledge, and useful approaches for deploying intersectionality frameworks within psychology.