Interlocking Systems of Oppression

Abstract

The concept of “interlocking systems of oppression”—a precursor to “intersectionality”—was introduced in a social movement context by the Combahee River Collective (CRC) in pamphlet form in 1977. Addressing Black lesbians’ and feminists’ experiences of invisibility within white male-dominated New Left and socialist politics, male-dominated civil rights, Black nationalist, and Black radical organizing, and white-dominated women’s liberation, and lesbian feminist movements, the CRC argues for an “integrated analysis and practice” of struggle against “racial, sexual, heterosexual and class oppression” (CRC, A black feminist statement. In: G. Anzaldua & C. Moraga (Eds.), This bridge called my back: Writings by radical women of color (2nd ed., pp. 210–218). Latham: Kitchen Table/Women of Color Press, 1977/1981/1983). In this chapter, the author argues that the CRC articulates and problematizes sexuality as a category of analysis from a “queer” subject position which avows racialized lesbian visibility and resists the tendency to “heterosexualize” women of color feminisms.