Intersectionality is a framework for understanding how different parts of a person’s identity, like race, disability, gender, and class, overlap to shape their experiences of power, marginalization, and privilege. The term was coined by Black feminist legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw to describe how Black women face forms of discrimination that cannot be fully explained by “racism alone” or “sexism alone.”

When we look specifically at disability and race, intersectionality helps us notice patterns that disappear if we treat them separately. Disabled people of color are more likely to encounter barriers in healthcare, education, employment, and the legal system because racism and ableism compound. For example, Black and Brown disabled students may be more harshly disciplined, mis‑labeled, or denied support when racist stereotypes and ableist assumptions shape how adults interpret their behavior and needs. And when someone is having a public meltdown or crisis, Black and Brown disabled people face greater risk of police violence or criminalization than white disabled people.

Black feminist disability scholars show that disability and race are tangled together, not separate issues. Racism has frequently borrowed ableist ideas — for example, falsely treating people of color as ‘less intelligent’ or ‘unfit’ and using those labels to justify exclusion and violence. At the same time, systemic racism creates disability through things like environmental toxins, medical neglect, chronic stress, police violence, and unequal access to care, which all increase health risks for many communities of color. Intersectionality gives us language for this loop: how racism and ableism feed each other, instead of acting as separate, parallel systems.

In daily life, intersectionality can show up in subtle and cumulative ways: like being the only Black Autistic person in a mostly white neurodivergent space, navigating clinicians who pathologize both culture and cognition, or noticing that disability spaces often center white experiences while racial justice spaces overlook disabled needs. Intersectionality matters because it shines a light on how systems like racism and ableism operate together, and how we can respond in ways that move us toward collective liberation.