Critical Race Theory explained by its founder
Think from KERA
KERA
4.7 • 911 Ratings
🗓️ 12 May 2026
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
There’s power in speaking truth to power — you just need the courage of your convictions. Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw is Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles, the Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, and the cofounder and executive director of the African American Policy Forum. She joins host Krys Boyd to talk about her upbringing, which taught her to speak out when things weren’t fair, how that helped shape her work in critical race theory and intersectionality, and why she feels all people have the power to push for change. Her book is “Backtalker: An American Memoir.”
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| 0:33.4 | We can play games where victory is about skill or luck or some combination of the two. |
| 0:39.3 | But what if the rules are written such that certain players can perform really well and almost never win, |
| 0:45.3 | while others who do a mediocre job on the field take all the prizes? |
| 0:49.3 | Worst of all, those messed up rules mean the winners don't even have to cheat on purpose. |
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| 1:02.6 | From KERA in Dallas, this is think. |
| 1:05.4 | I'm Chris Boyd. |
| 1:06.9 | Laws and institutions that privilege certain groups and penalize others are woven so deeply into American life that some of us forget they are not inevitable. |
| 1:16.1 | Policies made by people can and must be made better by people. |
| 1:21.2 | My guest has devoted her career to identifying those ethically dubious structures, especially as they apply to race and gender, |
| 1:28.9 | and to finding ways to expose and challenge them. Kimberly Williams Crenshaw is distinguished |
| 1:33.9 | professor of law at UCLA, Isidore and Salzbacher Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, |
| 1:40.1 | co-founder and executive director of the African American Policy Forum. She developed the concept of intersectionality and is a founder in the intellectual movement called Critical Race Theory. |
| 1:50.0 | Her new book is called Backtalker, an American memoir. |
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