Black Feminism Reimagined: After Intersectionality

Abstract

In her Black feminism reimagined, Jennifer C. Nash engages with the notion of intersectionality, central for the discussions of black feminism, in an affective and also critical way. The theoretician’s standpoint is located in her experience and readings as an academic, therefore, a substantial part of the discussion is centered around academic practices and their most recent connections with intersectionality. Understanding the university as a place that was not historically a space of support for intellectual knowledge production of black women, Nash ponders about practices which remain colonial in such locations: the use of intersectionality for good corporate image, the peripheral space reserved for theoreticians who engage with this type of analytics, the fetishization of black women, which contributes to systemic violence. Nash believes one can read and think intersectionality from a perspective which requires commitment and care, where there is space and demand for dialogue and reinvention, inspired by social and global changes already taking place and amplifying feminist perfections of black women and women of color.