Kimberlé Crenshaw’s Memoir “Backtalker” Traces the Birth and Battle of Intersectionality and Critical Race Theory

In May 2026, legal scholar Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw published *Backtalker*, a plain-spoken memoir that intertwines her upbringing in Canton, Ohio, with the intellectual history of the concepts she coined—intersectionality and critical race theory (CRT). The book explains how a 1976 Supreme Court case and a 1989 law-review article sparked ideas that now dominate academic discourse and public-policy battles.

NPR

Crenshaw’s “aha” moment came while studying DeGraffenreid v. General Motors (1976), where a Black woman was forced to sue “as a Black person or as a woman, but not both.” She later articulated the overlap of race and gender in a 1989 article titled *“Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex.”* A decade later, she and roughly 30 scholars of color introduced the term “critical race theory,” arguing that racism is embedded in American law rather than incidental.

NPR

A vivid episode recounted in the memoir involves Crenshaw’s invitation to Harvard’s Fly Club. When she arrived, a friend announced, “Because Kim is a woman, she has to go through the back door. We don’t allow women to come through the front door.” The incident crystallized for her the “fine print” of gendered exclusion, complementing the legal insight from the DeGraffenreid case.

Legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw talks about her new book, 'Backtalker'

During the 2020 presidential campaign, Donald Trump labeled CRT “toxic propaganda” and later called it a “hateful Marxist doctrine,” promising to ban it in federal training. As of 2026, more than 20 states have enacted restrictions on how CRT may be taught, turning the scholarly concepts into flashpoints in school-board meetings and state legislatures.

New Yorker

• Trump (2020 rally): “We will ban critical race theory from our schools and government.”

New Yorker

• State legislatures (2021-2025): Bills in Texas, Idaho, and 18 other states prohibit curricula that present CRT as a framework for analyzing history.

New Yorker

• Crenshaw (interview, May 2026): She described the current climate as a “period of retrenchment” following the George Floyd reckoning, noting that progress in civil-rights law is repeatedly met with backlash.

Legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw talks about her new book, 'Backtalker'

The concepts now shape debates over curriculum standards, influence cultural productions (e.g., Beyoncé’s “intersectional feminism”), and provide language for activists confronting overlapping systems of oppression. Their migration from law reviews to legislative hearings illustrates how academic theory can become a contested public good.

New Yorker

• “We're not living in a world in which we are all standing on equal footing,” — Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, legal scholar

NPR

• “If you are learning about the way that the Constitution embedded enslavement in it, despite the fact that slavery as a word never appears — that's critical race theory,” — Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw

NPR

• “We don't allow women to come through the front door.” — Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw (Fly Club anecdote)

Legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw talks about her new book, 'Backtalker'

• “These are very erudite judges, but they weren't able to understand something that, to me, was very basic in the lived lives of Black women like me.” — Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw

Legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw talks about her new book, 'Backtalker'

Sources agree that “more than 20 states” restrict CRT, but none provide an exact count or a definitive list, leaving the precise scope of legislative action ambiguous. Additionally, reliability ratings for the NPR interview transcripts are unspecified, suggesting caution when citing verbatim dialogue.

Legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw talks about her new book, 'Backtalker'

Crenshaw plans to continue teaching at UCLA and Columbia while monitoring upcoming court challenges to state CRT bans. Scholars anticipate further litigation over the definition of “intersectionality” in employment law, and legislators in several states are drafting bills that could expand or tighten curricular controls in the coming academic year.

NPR