Backtalker

A Memoir

De: Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw

Narrado por: Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw

New York Times Bestseller

One of the most influential public intellectuals in the world and the architect of the two biggest ideas to reshape the American conversation about fairness offers the intimate story of how her life gave birth to these ideas.

It is not very often that someone comes along and permanently reshapes the way Americans think about two of the most important issues of the day. In this case: race and gender. But that is what Kimberlé Crenshaw did when she articulated two concepts that would forever change national and global debates about equality: intersectionality and critical race theory.

Backtalker is the powerful and intimate story of how a little girl from Canton, Ohio, came up with a new way to look at the world. Crenshaw’s memoir traces the way her lived experience made her see things others didn’t as the daughter of a strong-minded teacher and a pathbreaking public servant, and as the sister of a protective, yet bullying older brother. She starts to talk back, and that backtalking has continued throughout her life. It happens when she is denied a role in the kindergarten school play. When she is escorted to the back door of a private club. When Anita Hill is exiled for testifying against Clarence Thomas. When OJ Simpson goes on trial. When Obama launches My Brother’s Keeper, a movement focused on boys of color only. When the movement against police violence overlooks Black women. Crenshaw is there for all of it.

In the vein of Ta-Nehisi Coates and Bryan Stevenson, Crenshaw evokes each time and place like a gifted novelist with extreme honesty and specificity, making her book a series of awe-inspiring, deep revelations. As a result of her work, Crenshaw has become a force to be reckoned with across America—at schools, in the workplace, at dinner tables, and, of course, in our public square.

Her story is my story!

This is an Outstanding, excellent book. It should be a ‘must-read’ for every student in America!

A Slice of Our History

Kimberly Crenshaw crafted her story in an engaging and intricate way. She makes our history...American history...come alive. What a superb history lesson for all. Get this book.

The wonderful narration drew me in it was great.

There was nothing I didn’t like. I loved the story. I could vividly imagine how people thought as the contraption traveled down the road with two giraffes.

Brilliance

Absolutely incredible. Kimberle, thank you for everything you’ve given to the world, your communities, your family, your friends, and myself, an aspiring backtalker. Such brilliance, we are blessed to be able to read your important work.

Amazing woman shining a light on our times

I can’t recommend this book enough. The epilogue should be required reading/listening for every American at this moment. Crenshaw’s memoir, her front row seat to so many pivotal moments in recent history, her innovation in how we think about intersectionality and our history, her understanding of this moment, her commitment to creating a more just future - it’s all so well woven together, heartwrenching, and motivating. What a gift she is to our humanity.