Decolonial Feminism at the Intersection: A Critical Reflection on the Relationship Between Decolonial Feminism and Intersectionality

This article offers a critical reading of Maria Lugones's engagement with intersectionality theory, as primarily developed by Black feminists. I argue that her "linguistic critique" of intersectionality risks jeopardizing the possibility of coalitional politics emphasized by decolonial feminisms, especially between Black women and Latinas. We should instead attend to her "coloniality critique" that shows what undergirds the categorial logics intersectionality names, interrogating their source as a colonial imposition. By furthering the insights of intersectionality, I argue that decolonial feminism helps us to reorient our practices of resistance to categorial logics and the possibility of forging decolonizing coalitions among women of color.