Charts Crenshaw’s extraordinary journey from precocious child to renowned public intellectual ... Rich ... That the precise prose of this account, and numerous other anecdotes, is written with the kind of titanic certainty that would sway a jury is expected; what’s surprising, however, is Crenshaw’s candor in revealing her vulnerability and disappointments ... Ends with the author finding strength in the sounds she remembers from her childhood — her father’s singing, her mother’s piano — and a rousing call to see the story of the future as one in which 'the spirit of freedom was nurtured by talking back.'
Kimberlé Crenshaw gave us the terms 'intersectionality' and 'critical race theory.' Her new memoir shows that she isn’t done fighting over what they mean ... Plenty of scholars and journalists have written histories of these contentious terms ... Now Crenshaw has written something different: a history of herself ... She frames her life and her remarkably influential career as one long fight against various forms of exclusion and unfairness ... Neither of the movements she named was designed for mainstream acceptance. C.R.T. was born as an insurgent project, and intersectionality was once a critique of the civil-rights movement. What are they now?
Crenshaw’s memoir is a personal, passionate reminder that sustained freedom to think, communicate, and protest is the best defense against the backslide of progress.
Brilliant, accessible ... Backtalker delivers on its promise, showcasing how Crenshaw’s unique human story prepared her to make a substantive contribution to legal thought and advocacy, and how a position of principled defiance has guided her every step of the way.
Transformative ... The memoir unfolds as a series of beautifully layered memories ... Written with clarity and precision built by Williams Crenshaw’s deep expertise on race and gender politics, and sharpened by the constant defense for the need for both to be discussed, the memoir is both grounded and resolute ... Feels like the next important act of backtalking.
Nuanced and lively ... Maybe inevitably, but to the book’s detriment, she largely abandons memoir in the chapters covering her life after graduate school, instead paying attention to events largely in the public sphere ... Occasionally, she indulges in score-settling ... A provocative study of how the personal and the political collide.
