Backtalker: An American Memoir

by Kimberlé Crenshaw

A Simon & Schuster book. Simon & Schuster has a great book for every reader.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Feminism, Race, Social Justice, Biography, Politics

400 pages, Hardcover

Published May 5, 2026

About the author

Kimberlé Crenshaw (also writes as Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw) is a professor of law at UCLA and Columbia Law School. A leading authority on civil rights, black feminist legal theory, and racism and the law, she is a co-editor of Critical Race Theory (The New Press). Crenshaw is a contributor to Ms. Magazine, The Nation, and the Huffington Post. She lives in Los Angeles.

Reviews

[Tram · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Being a backtalker is like being lactose intolerant. There are things that I cannot digest.”

I got to see *the* Kimberlé Crenshaw on her book tour of her memoir and am so grateful to have gotten to witness her in person in this lifetime.

Kimberlé Crenshaw is a Black legal feminist scholar who coined the ideas of intersectionality and critical race theory.

The book is well-written and expansive, covering her childhood in Canton, Ohio through Harvard Law School to her career as a civil rights advocate to her relationships with other radical activists.

Topics covered:
-Her close and complex bonds with family and the early and inexplicable losses of her father and brother
-Her experience with an abusive and controlling college ex (BFH) and her subsequent characterization as a loud and vindictive woman as well as the fragmentation of her community
-Her mother’s experience with “urban renewal,” blight, and Lorraine Hansberry
-Her time at Harvard Law right after the departure of Prof. Derrick Bell and his “Con Law and Minority Issues” course
-Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas, and how his 1991 appointment contributed to the dismantling of the Voting Rights Act today
-Her criticisms on Obama’s failures to name racial biases within the court systems after Trayvon Martin’s death and the t, pervasive failures of the current admin on race, gender, and civil rights
-At the book tour stop, she also gave her opinions on how the US Supreme Court denied VA’s redistricting appeal on Friday and the race politics of The Roast of Kevin Hart

Can’t recommend this book enough and she narrates her own audiobook and also Angela Rye as a moderator was fantastic

[Kaelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

First, I want to thank Simon and Schuster for providing me a digital ARC of this book. I am an intersectional criminologist whose research has been greatly influenced by Kimberlé Crenshaw's work on critical race theory and intersectionality. So, it was an honor to get an advanced copy. There's so much that I could say about this book. It was amazing, Crenshaw is amazing, and I recommend that everyone pick up this book ASAP. I don't want to give spoilers; so, I will highlight the three key things that I loved about it.

1) Her writing in the book is phenomenal (as usual). I wouldn’t say the book was fast paced, but it was easy to get caught up in the stories being told in each chapter. You were also able to tell from her stories from kindergarten to post law school how and why she came up with CRT and intersectionality. The through line was clear, and the path to how she got their was beautiful to read about.

- I also loved how she blended the personal with the political and vice versa. This is 100% a memoir where I learned so much more about her, but I also learned so much about other topics that I was familiar with but didn’t necessarily know a lot about from an intersectional perspective. Some of the topics she hits on are Anita Hill and her involvement in the hearing, the OJ Simpson trial, the My Brother's Keeper, Black women and IPV. Also, she’s a fair critique. She critiques the Trump and Obama administrations. And, I really appreciated her duality and ability to say “both/and." There's not nearly enough of that nowadays.

- In line with that last part, I loved her vulnerability. In this book, she discussed the grief of losing her closest family members, her experience with IPV, and her struggles as a black woman in the academy. The book made me feel heard, seen, and valued. I’d recommend everyone read the book, but I think it’s an especially great book for Black women.

- Something else I loved was the stories about her spending time with Angela Davis and Toni Morrison. How amazing is that?


All in all, preorder this book ASAP or purchase it once it's out. You will not regret it. I may even reread it via audio if there's an audiobook version narrated by Kimberlé Crenshaw. I also want this to be adapted into a biopic sooooo bad!

[Steph | bookedinsaigon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review

Kimberlé Crenshaw will be a familiar name if you are passionate about social justice. And this acclaimed legal scholar, who coined and popularized the terms “intersectionality” and “critical race theory,” has now written a memoir that is a wonderfully engaging and accessible introduction to her person and ideas.

Move over, Laura Ingalls: young Kimberlé has the spunk and gumption of a classic young American protagonist. Part 1 of BACKTALKER is the most “familiar” in terms of its memoir format, and was a delight. Crenshaw’s spirit shines through as she recounts episodes from her childhood that formed the basis of her later thoughts on the ways in which racism and patriarchy overlap to particularly harm Black women and girls. A couple chapters made me cry; you’ll know when you get to them.

Parts 2 and 3 were a bit more challenging to read, as Crenshaw steps away from the typical memoir structure and dives more into key life events in which her theories on intersectionality and CRT come to the forefront. She writes about historical events such as Clarence Thomas’ Supreme Court nomination and Anita Hill’s public hearing; the OJ Simpson murder trial and what it revealed about the US’ unwillingness to see how structural racism played a role; and Obama’s tepid response to Trayvon Martin’s murder and the way in which it overlooked Black girls. I did wish for a bit less reporting and more personal story in these sections, as that would have been more engaging. Still, I appreciated reading about these events through Crenshaw’s perspective, as clear examples of how our failure to understand and address intersectionality harms all, and does not create the progress that we truly need.

BACKTALKER was my introduction to Crenshaw’s writing, and I am definitely eager to read more from her. She is a strong and engaging writer, whose theories form an important backbone to contemporary activist work.

[Mark Robison · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a brief scene in this often marvelous memoir that someone needs to make into fan fiction, a comic book series or a Netflix show. The author is in the backseat of a Jaguar, Toni Morrison is riding shotgun and driving is ... Angela Y. Davis!

Listening to the audiobook of the author narrating her amazing life, I thought this was 5 stars all the way as she told vignettes about things that'd happened to her — complete with a musical soundtrack of what she was listening to at the time — and how she developed the idea of intersectionality and coined the phrase critical race theory. I couldn't wait to buy my own copy to highlight ideas, recommendations and passages I wanted to revisit. If it weren't for the epilogue, I would've rated it 5 stars. But this formidable public intellectual ends by undercutting her legacy.

Her story is amazing. She grew up in the '60s as a reluctant backtalker who simply wasn't willing to stay quiet when someone needed to speak up, like at her church after Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination when no one else was saying anything. She was 8 years old.

Her brother, a Vietnam vet, is shot to death at university and the police don't do anything to investigate who did it because it was "just" a bunch of black kids involved. In her own university days, she won't back down to an abusive boyfriend; he punches her in the face and tries to throw her out a 10th floor window; and her friends side with the guy because they don't want to make the black movement look bad and she does have a mouth on her.

She invents the concept of intersectionality while at law school (if I'm remembering the chronology right) while reviewing the case of a black woman who sues a Detroit automaker for discrimination. The automaker says it couldn't have discriminated against her because it hires lots of black men (as factory workers) and lots of women (all white, as secretaries and clerks). The author is, like, no, there's this intersection of race and sex where this black woman was uniquely discriminated against.

The author sits behind Anita Hill for support during the Clarence Thomas hearings. She's tapped as an expert commentator during the OJ Simpson trial. She becomes an advocate highlighting black women killed by police because their names seldom get anywhere near the attention of black men killed by police. See aapf.org.

A favorite scene is where she takes on the failures of the Obama administration to advocate for black women and Obama's advisor Valerie Jarrett tries to mansplain "intersectionality" to her.

Again, 5-star stuff. Just brilliant.

And then in the epilogue, oh boy. This person, who up to this point has spoken truth to power and seen through the smoke and noise to see the ways race and sex combine to create unique problems, goes on autopilot. She contends Kamala Harris lost because of sexism and racism. As a political reporter who has ridden in Harris' motorcade more than once and been to Trump rallies where "Joe and the Ho" merch was widely sold, I know she faced a lot of misogynoir. But racism and sexism weren't Harris' biggest problems. This isn't the place to detail them. (Really, though, she couldn't think of a single thing she would've done differently than Biden?)

The author did an eloquent job defending the foundations of Wokeness throughout the book — until the end, where she trots out its laziest, weakest arguments as if it's still 2019 and fails to engage any of the well-discussed reasons Trump made gains with black voters in the 2024.

She criticizes those who caricature affirmative action as reverse racism but then, as a law professor, decides not to look at any of the interesting arguments around how the Supreme Court recently addressed it or how other black public intellectuals like Coleman Hughes approach it. It felt like she's either in a bubble now (likely) or she's afraid of backtalking for fear of being cancelled, something that would happen at UCLA, where she's a law school professor (also likely but I suspect the first).

So disappointing. I would've knocked off only 1 star for the epilogue because I loved the rest so much, but since it undercuts her whole premise of being a backtalker, it's 2 stars off. She now seems incapable of backtalking the people who misinterpret intersectionality everywhere you look or the Woke scolds who turned off enough of the nation that millions of voters preferred Trump chaos to what the Democrats were offering. The left needs more backtalkers if it wants power back, but I'm not seeing that this author will help it going forward.

[jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

An expansive and moving depiction of her life, Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw’s memoir “Backtalker” covers a lot of ground. The title introduces itself early on as a central theme to tie these individual stories together, and we see how early childhood moments lay the groundwork for the legal and theoretical work that would come later.

My absolute favorite parts of this book—and when I felt most connected to the writing—were in the depictions of Kimberlé’s family. The complex bonds between herself and her mother, father, and brother catapulted me through the first of the three sections. It truly felt like reading a love letter to her family and the pivotal moments in her childhood that led her to become the person who created the concepts of critical race theory and intersectionality (where I first learned about her, during my social work grad program). I did find that the momentum slowed down in the latter half of the book, as we follow Kimberlé through law school and into her professional career, but it was still very informative and engaging to read.

Overall, a solid 4 star read that I would absolutely recommend.

Many thanks to Simon & Schuster for providing an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

[Cheryl Petrone]

I love memoirs. Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw grew up in the 1970’s. Her Mom was a music teacher in a public school in Akron, Ohio. I liked the parts of the book when she was a high school student, as well as when she attended Cornell as an undergraduate, and Harvard for law school. Williams survived two very difficult deaths in her family, and she went through a very difficult time in 1991. The book introduced me to the theory of intersectionality and the ways that gender, race and class overlap. I recommend this non-fiction book that reads like a fiction book.

[Elwira · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5*

A wrong without a name leaves no safe harbor, no space that stands between you and the dangerous assumption that this suffering is just the way of the world, and that the responsibility is on you to accept it. Without acknowledgment, there is simply denial or self-blame.

I first came across Professor Crenshaw's work while researching for a college project, which has largely shaped the way I view systemic injustice and intersectionality. It was an absolute honour to see and hear Crenshaw discuss 'Backtalker' at the University of Edinburgh and to learn how the circumstances of her life became the basis of 'intersectionality', 'Critical Race Theory' and the #SayHerName campaign.

She traces her work to many chilhood and adulthood experiences.The 'legalised' theft of her mother's inherited property for 'urban renewal' revealed how the law could be weaponised to dispossess Black communities without the use of racist language. Violence from an ex-boyfriend at university revealed how the patriarchy operates, often with the silence and complicity of others. The murder of her brother, Mantel, rendered invisible by a justice system unmoved by Black lives, showed how institutions fail to protect those at the margins. And the systemic injustices of the education curriculum exposed how flawed these institutions truly are.

All of these experiences demanded a more complex understanding of injustice. Crenshaw argues that Black communities were forced into a false choice in the Clarence Thomas hearings: between supporting a Black man (Thomas) against racism, and a Black woman (Anita Hill) against sexism. She frames this as an intersectional failure (a moment when the community's 'we' solidarity was not complex enough to protect its most vulnerable individuals). Her #SayHerName campaign was a practical application of this observation, where the stories of Black women were invisible in the broader Black Lives Matter movement.

Furthermore, the Obama administration's 'My Brother's Keeper' initiative addressed obstacles faced by Black boys and men of colour but was silent on the parallel crisis facing Black girls and women of colour.

Crenshaw's call to expand the 'we' and her insistence that gender and racial justice are not separate provides a strong framework for ensuring that solidarity is never left incomplete.

Overall, Backtalker is a truly enlightening memoir from one of the most vital thinkers of our time.

[Em · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading Backtalker: An American Memoir by Kimberlé Crenshaw felt personal in a way I didn’t expect. As a Mount Holyoke alum, I was especially surprised by the story of her visiting campus as a prospective student. While I was embraced by Black cultural orgs during my own visit, they tried to sell her on the equestrian program and when she joked about not even having a horse, I felt that in my bones. That moment captures so much about who institutions imagine belonging for and who has to insist on being seen.

Crenshaw’s reflection on her late brother Mantel, featured alongside her on the cover, enlightened me. As one of two siblings, she names how he was her first mirror: her closest peer, and how witnessing the ways racism and sexism shaped her life differently than his sharpened her awareness early on. You can feel how those observations became the groundwork for what the world would later come to know as intersectionality.

My favorite aspects to read were the early stories like the childhood moment when she was denied the chance to play a princess in school and her parents insisted that the teacher come to their home and make amends. That kind of advocacy didn’t just protect her, it taught her that her voice mattered. And she carried that lesson forward, again and again.

From building Black feminist communities on campus to navigating racism and sexism in the U.S. and abroad, Crenshaw shows us a life shaped by both resistance and imagination. The memoir doesn’t shy away from complexity. She highlights cultural and political moments like the O. J. Simpson trial and the appointment of Clarence Thomas following Thurgood Marshall which ground her personal journey within a broader American landscape.

This book peels back the curtain on one of the most important thinkers of our time. It’s not just about theory but it’s about the lived experiences, relationships, and moments of courage that made intersectional theory and critical race theory necessary.

[Cole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you Simon Books for the #gifted copy in exchange for an honest review! #SimonBooksBuddy

In her memoir, Kimberlé Crenshaw walks readers through her upbringing in Canton, Ohio, to her time at Harvard Law, to her subsequent career as a luminary in the field of race and gender studies. If you’ve ever heard or used the term intersectionality, a core tenant of critical race theory, then you NEED to know the story of Kimberlé Crenshaw. She walks through the anecdotes from her childhood that helped to shape the development of intersectionality, the cognitive dissonance of the O.J. Simpson trial, her positionality and hope living through the election of the first Black president, her leadership in the #SayHerName movement, and of course, the recent federal censorship of terms like intersectionality.

I love memoirs, specifically because they demonstrate the ordinary events that lead to extraordinary stories, and Kimberlé Crenshaw's memoir is a prime example of this. There were so many stories of her being left behind by feminism that centered white women, and racial and civil rights that centered men. It’s an unfiltered account, a reclamation of the term “backtalker” that feels both vulnerable and inspirational. She’s such a gifted writer, with immersive and riveting storytelling alongside practical analytics. With her revolutionary voice, she’s the definition of a backtalker.

Reviewed as part of an #ARC from the publisher.

Read this book if you:
📝were ever a Girls or Boys State nerd
📣 shout #SayHerName
🚦use the term “intersectionality”

Follow me on Instagram for more book reviews!

[Jamie Cha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I give the book 4.5 stars. I received a free ebook in exchange for a fair and unbiased review. I had not heard of the author before this book. I was so interested in the topic.

The book is so interesting. Her life's story is fascinating. The book talks about the history of racism and misogyny too. It's hard to separate the authors life from her work.

The book is fairly easy to read. I read the book in about 2 weeks. The chapters are fairly short. The book is kinda long. There is really no way to make the book any shorter.

The book is about celebrating wins and dealing with the losses. The wins and losses are apparent in the authors life and the history of racism and misogyny. She has done so much. Yet, there is so much to be done.

She focuses a lot on women of color and sexism. It's something that doesn't get talked about enough. She even calls out those that are rarely called out.

The book is so relevant today. While reading this book, the voting rights act was just destroyed. I hope others will appreciate this book for all that it offers.

I am grateful to the author and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book. I hope I am able to see the author in person for a book talk. I am interested in what the author does next.

[Kirah M’Lyssa Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Backtalker has been one of my favorite reads of the year.

As someone pursuing my doctorate in Organizational Leadership with a focus on HRD, I greatly admire Crenshaw’s research and impact. Her work on intersectionality and critical race theory (CRT) has shaped the way so many of us understand identity, power, systems, and how people are often forced into the narrow boxes society creates for them.

What made this memoir so powerful was reading about the moments and crucibles that shaped her thinking. Crenshaw does not just write about theory from a distance. She shows how lived experience, resistance, and “talking back” can become a way of challenging systems that were never built with everyone in mind.

I especially appreciated how this book connects the personal, political, and academic without losing the human-centric aspects that make a memoir so enjoyable. It made me think about my own work, the research I care about, and the responsibility we ALL have to keep questioning the systems people are expected to accept.

I could not recommend this book more; I highly recommend adding it to your TBR.


**Thank you, Netgalley and the publisher, for an advance copy for an honest review. All opinions are my own**

[Andi_loves_2_read · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this memoir, Kimberle Crenshaw explains the origin of her confidence; she has always been a Backtalker!
I am familiar with Critical Race Theory, but hadn’t heard of intersectionality or the pioneer of both, Kimberle Williams Crenshaw. I enjoyed learning about her childhood and admire her ability to speak up and speak out whenever she felt it necessary, no matter how many hands were working hard to keep her mouth shut!
I cannot relate to the personal racial disparities that she speaks of, but I am a woman and can relate to the gender disparities - I admire her all the more for fighting against both racial and gender disparities.
Kimberle Williams Crenshaw is a force to be reckoned with and everyone can learn from her. I recommend this book to readers who enjoy memoirs of smart people who stand up for themselves and others. I wish that every American would read this.
Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review.

[Deirdre Megan Byrd · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you’ve ever been told to “stay in your lane,” Kimberlé Crenshaw’s Backtalker is a masterclass in why that’s overrated. From a five-year-old in Canton, Ohio questioning her teacher to a legal powerhouse reshaping how we talk about justice, Crenshaw’s voice is sharp, fearless, and impossible to ignore. The memoir crackles with moments that are both deeply personal and historically momentous, especially as she unpacks the roots of intersectionality and critical race theory. What makes this a five-star read is how she threads pain, insight, and defiance into something that feels urgent right now. It’s not just a memoir, it’s a call to notice what’s been hidden in plain sight. Smart, stirring, and just the right amount of spunky, Backtalker demands you rethink the rules.

[Stephanie Dargusch Borders · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a bit of a longer audiobook (at least for me,) clocking in at around 17 hours. The beginning was my favorite just because Crenshaw is a natural born story teller and hearing the stories from her childhood was riveting.

Having coined terms and theories like intersectionality and critical race theory, it was fascinating to hear the genesis straight from the creator’s mouth. Likewise she framed it among the relevant social backdrop of the 90s, including Anita Hill’s senate judiciary testimony and OJ Simpson’s acquittal. Having been familiar with both of these events, I really appreciated seeing them through a different lens and noting things about both scenarios that I hadn’t recognized before.

[Harley Quinn]

2026 DNF, 5/28: GOT TO 48% (OR ~192 PAGES). My 12th DNF of 2026. Published just 23 days ago on 5/5/26, this is a highly-rated memoir (at least by the 78 people who’ve rated it so far) that I enjoyed for the first 33% or so through her childhood, but after it got into high school and college, it got more political. Which of course matches who she is, but I didn’t really know her before I started it so wasn’t attached to finishing. Especially with mounting pressures of 8 other fiction (i.e. more fun) holds that came in around the same time. I’m not sure if I will attempt again.

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly an incredible memoir of an incredible life. I knew of Crenshaw’s work, but only at a high level. This memoir was wonderfully written, and the second half (focusing on her adult life & activism) was truly fascinating and remarkable. Highly recommend this!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

[Natalie Park · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful writing and an amazing life, so far, from the person who has added so much to how me talk and understand life with the ideas of intersectionality and critical race theory. I was very familiar with these two ideas but didn’t know much about the person. I highly recommend this read and the audiobook read by the author.

[Frauke Bakker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my queen Kimberblé Crenshaw! When I saw she wrote a book, Crenshaw who has been super influential to my studies, I couldn’t wait to read it. It did not disappoint, knowing where her knowledge comes from was beautiful to read <3

[Johnisha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is more of a 3.5 stars. I became very interested in later chapters, especially the ones about Anita Hill, Obama and #sayhername. But for some reason the part of the first half of the book that covered her childhood did not engage me nearly as much.

[JXR · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic, unique, and well-written memoir about the inherently political world we live in with the very unique perspective of the author. 5 stars. thanks for the E-ARC.

[Betsy]

read prepublication review in the guardian

[Hattie · Rating 5 out of 5]

20 words or less review:

Absolute icon. Riveting memoir.

[Viviana]

I received this as a gift in a box from Simon and Schuster in May 2026.

[jenna gordeaux · Rating 5 out of 5]

The life journey of Queen Crenshaw is truly remarkable.

Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw for President!!!