She coined the term \u2018intersectionality\u2019 and helped to develop critical race theory, now her life\u2019s work is under attack by Washington\u2019s war on \u2018woke\u2019. As her memoir is published, the legal scholar explains why she\u2019ll never stop speaking truth to power<\/p>\n
When Donald Trump returned to office in January last year, one of his first acts was to sign an executive order intended to cut\u00a0federal funding for\u00a0any school teaching\u00a0what the administration defined as \u201ccritical race theory\u201d. A raft of other orders mandated the termination of DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) personnel, offices and training across the federal government. Federal agencies began flagging hundreds\u00a0of words to avoid or eliminate, including \u201cintersectional\u201d\u00a0and \u201cintersectionality\u201d. All of which has amounted to 40 years of Kimberl\u00e9 Crenshaw\u2019s work being literally and deliberately erased.<\/p>\n
For decades, the 66-year-old legal scholar has been naming things that powerful people would prefer remain unnamed. In 1989, she coined the term intersectionality to describe the way race and gender overlap to shape lived experience, often in ways the law fails to recognise. Around the same time, she was one of a group of African American scholars who created the framework that came to be known as \u201ccritical race theory\u201d, which sought to examine how racism is embedded in legal systems rather than simply enacted through individual prejudice. Now, Crenshaw\u2019s ideas are being contested like never before.<\/p>\n
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