‘Intersectionality’ scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw thinks it’s time for everyone to talk back
A teacher who wouldn’t cast her as a princess in a kindergarten skit shaped Kimberlé Crenshaw’s views. So did her efforts to diversify the hiring process and courses at Harvard Law School while she was a student. So, too, did the appointment of Clarence Thomas as the second Black Supreme Court justice in 1991, and the erasure of Black girls and women in the 2010s who were victims of police brutality.
Crenshaw’s successes as one of the leading voices on law and equity have come against a backdrop of interpersonal and systemic racism and sexism. In the foreground have been resolute Black women who have molded, guided and inspired her work.
All of this, said Crenshaw, a legal scholar and professor who just released a memoir, “Backtalker: An American Memoir,” shaped her analysis on race, class and gender in the United States. And together, they show how ignoring the injustices of Black women contributes to the erosion of our democracy altogether.