Crenshaw's original writing about intersectionalism was based on a specific discrimination case that involved black women being left unprotected because black men were promoted (thus no racial discrimination) and white women were promoted (thus no sex discrimination). But the concept was more general than black women/black men/white women. As I read Crenshaw's early writing, it was not intended to silence white women or to diminish the impact of sexism on white women. It was to argue for awareness of how specific forms of institutional power can have differential impacts on vulnerable people depending on the intersections of various identities.

The general idea that race, class, and sex combine to produce specific and different ways of experiencing discrimination/privilege predates Crenshaw.