It seems fair to say that the Trump administration is not a big fan of Critical Race Theory, which over the years became a standard part of most law school curricula. Some states have banned the teaching of CRT. Consequently, I listened with great interest to NPR’s discussion of the subject with Law Professor Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw. Her latest book is Backtalker: An American Memoir. (Jeremy Paul named the book the Book of the Week a short while back). The publisher’s pitch for the book states, in part, that

“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.”

Professor Crenshaw is a pathbreaker — and backtalker! And the NPR interview was interesting.