05/10/2026
Thumbs up to Prof. Kimberle Crenshaw for her invaluable contribution to the discussion of race and gender in the USA.For anybody who knows and is committed to learning the lessons of history, intersectionality, , and Critical Race Theory are not dirty words and phrases. They are intended to take an objective and critical look to what is demonstrably problematic about our history and lived experiences. We cannot fix what is broken and wrong by denying it. We cannot be serious about the U.S. motto, "E PLURIBUS UNUM" while waging the unjust war on .
Legal Scholar Kimberle' Crenshaw coined the term ‘intersectionality’ and helped to develop Critical Race Theory, now her life’s work is under attack by Washington’s war on ‘woke’. As her memoir is published, the legal scholar explains why she’ll never stop speaking truth to power.
When Donald Trump returned to office in January last year, one of his first acts was to sign an executive order intended to cut federal funding for any school teaching what the administration defined as “critical race theory”. 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 of words to avoid or eliminate, including “intersectional” and “intersectionality”. All of which has amounted to 40 years of Kimberlé Crenshaw’s work being literally and deliberately erased.
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 “critical race theory”, which sought to examine how racism is embedded in legal systems rather than simply enacted through individual prejudice. Now, Crenshaw’s ideas are being contested like never before.
“Unfortunately, I did see this coming,” she tells me over a video call from the California offices of the African American Policy Forum, the thinktank she co-founded. We are calling to discuss Crenshaw’s new memoir, Backtalker, but the conversation soon shifts. “The fact that they are targeting this … it is because they understand the power of these ideas, the power of this history.” Behind her, posters reading “History repeats when we forget” and “The freedom to learn is the freedom to live” hang alongside shelves of critical race theory texts and Black history books the likes of which have, in some states, become politically radioactive.
SOURCE:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/apr/25/i-saw-the-backlash-coming-civil-rights-activist-kimberle-crenshaw-on-america-and-race
