Current studies of race, class, and gender inequality in the United States are centered in a paradigm of intersectionality. Emerging from feminist studies and racial/ethnic scholarship, this new paradigm analyzes the connections between race, class, and gender as they structure inequality and its supporting ideologies. This paper reviews the major tenets of U.S. race, class, and gender studies and discusses the historically changing conditions in the United States that necessitate this kind of analysis. It then investigates the implications of this model for understanding the ideology of neutrality and , ideology of dependency that currently underlie dominant group beliefs about race, class, and gender. The paper, concludes by suggesting the new directions for race, class, and gender studies and discussing the implications of this paradigm for analyses of race and gender stereotypes.