Leading scholar in the field of critical race theory Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term “intersectionality,” which she has described as a “lens through which you can see where power comes and collides, where it interlocks and intersects.” Crenshaw, a professor of law at UCLA and Columbia University and executive director of the African American Policy Forum, has just published a new book, Backtalker: An American Memoir.
“Backtalker is a frame that I use to encourage people to talk back against claims that the world as we have experienced it is the way it can only be, that there is no reason to continue to advocate for change,” says Crenshaw. She also discusses the Supreme Court’s recent gutting of the Voting Rights Act and the sociopolitical environment that allowed for Clarence Thomas to be appointed to the Supreme Court despite Anita Hill’s claims of sexual harassment against him.
