To understand problems in today’s society, one must possess an understanding of the history of social movements that have led us to our current standing in time. History is meaningful and relevant from a psychological perspective because it allows us to understand how dynamics between social groups have developed over time, and this understanding can also be useful in the application of public policy (Perlman, Hunter, & Stewart, 2015). However, just because a historical event or social movement may transform policy, it doesn’t necessarily shift individual attitudes. Perpetrators and victims of historical injustice often view events differently because they have different incentives for acknowledging the past. People who benefit from inequality tend to distance themselves and blame the victims, while the victims attempt to preserve memories of past atrocities (Perlman et al., 2015). …show more content…
The word was first used by Kimberlé Crenshaw (1989) to describe the marginalization of black women during consideration of separate civil rights and women’s rights movements. The marginalization of individuals belonging to more than one stigmatized group is an important factor to consider when conducting research into discrimination and prejudice, and a focus on the experience of black women specifically is a valuable perspective (Aiken, Salmon, & Hanges, 2013; Rosenthal, 2016). In hindsight, it is clear that rights movements in the United States evolved alongside each other (Aiken et al., 2013). One of the earliest examples of this would be the fact that early calls for women’s suffrage were inspired by the abolitionist movement gaining ground in the late 1800’s (Aiken et al., 2013). Much later in our history, we witnessed a similar phenomenon as the radical politics of change that helped women and African Americans in the 1960s and 1970s emboldened gay rights activists (Aiken et al.,