Legal scholar and professor Kimberlé Crenshaw is out with a new memoir, "Backtalker," and the title says it all.
Crenshaw frames "backtalking" as a deliberate act of resistance against false authority and autocracy, using personal storytelling as a vehicle to push back against what she describes as coordinated attacks on Black history, critical race theory and intersectionality — the legal framework she pioneered.
In the book, Crenshaw draws on her family's experiences with segregation and her own legal career to trace the long arc of civil rights in America. She is sharply critical of the impact of Clarence Thomas's confirmation on that arc, arguing his tenure on the Supreme Court has contributed to the erosion of key protections, including the Voting Rights Act.
Crenshaw calls the current moment a critical one, urging readers to move beyond awareness and into active resistance.