Kimberle (there's a punctuation mark over the second e. I have no clue how to create it on my smartphone.) Williams Crenshaw's Backtalker is the perfect follow up to the review I posted yesterday. Although Few Blue Skies is fiction and Backtalker is anything but, both deal explicitly with racism. When Crenshaw discusses how urban renewal targeted vibrant Black communities for razing, with eminent domain as the weapon of choice, and the people whose properties were stolen were paid unconscionably low amounts my mind jumped right to the placement of the noxious warehouses in the part of town where the people of color lived in Few Blue Skies.
For those of you who have never heard of Crenshaw or have been exposed to the totally off the wall misinterpretation of her critical race theory propagated by Ron DeSantis, she is a highly esteemed and accomplished law professor, scholar, and writer whose work has appeared in really prestigious publications. She is also the creator of Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality which are basically two of the most important theories of recent history.
I met Crenshaw's works in the theories course in my higher education student services masters program. I loved that class. While my classmates saw theories as set in stone, wisdom to follow in professional practice and information to memorize for the dreaded final, I saw them as living and evolving, a body of knowledge we could aspire to contribute to. When we got to intersectionality it was love at first read. Basically it says that a person is not oppressed or privileged because of one identity but a combination of identities. Like a Black woman at a pregnancy doctor's appointment can be treated with both biases on the doctor's part, not just one. It made total sense. Crenshaw became my favorite theorist.
So when I read that her memoir had dropped and was in the process of being acquired by several libraries in the Minerva network I was like a three-year-old who was told that on Christmas Santa would leave presents under the tree. Then when it reached me via inter library loan it was even better than I imagined.
Backtalker in itself is beautifully intersectional. Throughout the book, from readers' introduction to Crenshaw as a kindergartener heartbroken because she was never allowed to play the coveted role of Thorn Rosa through her current role as distinguished law professor and scholar, three strands are braided together: her personal and family life, the events and beliefs (and biases) of the nation, and the way both strands lead inexorably to her creating theories out of necessity.
Her voice is an eminently readable and engaging one. Even when she covers topics that many people make confusing through jargon and abstraction she makes them come to life for those of us without PhDs. She's vulnerable and authentic. She knows what details to include to create engagement and empathy. She had me in tears when I read about the deaths of her father and older brother when she was quite young.
And if you want drama Backtalker is the book to pick up. My textbook made it look like Crenshaw came up with the idea of intersectionality and it was a done deal. I had no clue of the level of opposition she encountered from very powerful people and groups.
If you want to understand the things that are seriously problematic in this country or want an awesome shero to believe in or maybe want to nurture the hidden backtalker in yourself this story of the little girl from Ohio who grew up to be one of the most brilliant and bad ass intellectuals of our time is a most excellent investment.
On a purrrsonal note, I too was a backtalker from an early age. In church I was banned from asking questions in Sunday school after my first grade teacher ran out of the room in tears and quit. My principal didn't appreciate my informing my classmates that the duck and cover drill she'd just taught us wouldn't save us because an atom bomb would pulverize the whole school. The year I had American history I asked so many inconvenient questions we ran out of school days before I served all my detentions. So now I have a new ambition to add to my list: getting a job at UMaine, getting my stroke narrative published, continually adding to my impressive cat tattoo collection, climbing a mountain, flying to Ghana to visit a friend, finding more venues for performing in drag shows, and meeting Crenshaw in person.
A great big shout out goes out to Crenshaw for her lifelong backtalking and fighting for justice and for the precious gift of her memoir.
Sent from my Galaxy
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