Multiracial feminist theory

Multiracial feminist theory is a feminist theory thought to have gained momentum in the 1970s by feminist women of color.Maxine Baca Zinn and Bonnie Thornton Dill wrote “Theorizing Difference from Multiracial Feminism” in 1996, a piece emphasising intersectionality and the application of intersectional analysis in feminist discourse.

Women of color have challenged the use of the second-wave movement as it places women's oppression at the root of sexism, without any regards to other forms of domination. Generally speaking, women of color acknowledge that race acted as a foundational power structure that heavily effected their lives. The activist work of WOC has been erased from the second wave movement. The term, "multiracial" was used to illustrate the importance of race interacting with other forms of oppression to understand gender relations. With a focus on race, multiracial feminism acknowledges, "the social construction of differently situated social groups and their varying degrees of advantages and power". One definition of multiracial feminism is, "an attempt to go beyond a mere recognition of diversity and difference among women to examine structures of domination, specifically the importance of race in understanding the social construction of gender." The central point of this perspective is to focus in on the significance of race, institutionalized racism, and struggles against racial oppression to understand how various forms of domination influence women's experiences.

A product, in part, of Chicana feminism, multiracial feminist theory covers a wide range of gender-based, racial and political discourses intended to further analyze the interlocking oppressions minorities, women, women of color and other oppressions individuals face.

Having first gained steam in the 1970s, multiracial feminism grew as a movement to challenge racist, classist, and sexist barriers not as separate, singular matters but as interlocking identities that make up both privilege and oppression. Multiracial feminism is described as a “liberation movement spearheaded by women of color” and focused primarily on intersectional analysis and both an international and a multiracial approach to oppression.

Although not acknowledged by the second wave movement, women of color and white women took a stand to combat racism and colonialism. Black feminists believed that, "cross-racial struggle made clear the work that white women needed to do in order for cross-racial sisterhood to really be powerful." White women also recognized that sexism was not the root of women's oppression. They collaborated to put forth a anti-rascist movement that incorporated interlocking forms of oppression.

...
Wikipedia