Is ‘colourblindness’ a myth? Kimberlé Crenshaw on the 'war on woke'
Ways to Change the World with Krishnan Guru-Murthy
Channel 4 News
4.7 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 29 May 2026
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode of Ways to Change the World, Krishnan Guru-Murthy speaks to Kimberlé Crenshaw, one of the most influential thinkers on race who coined the term intersectionality. Crenshaw has spent decades challenging how we understand inequality — and why it persists today.Crenshaw’s new memoir, Backtalker, is a blunt origin story of the lived experiences that shaped her work - from childhood moments of exclusion to confronting discrimination at Harvard, and the early instincts that led her to question power.The conversation explores the growing backlash against her ideas, from political attacks on critical race theory to efforts to erase or distort the language of inequality. Crenshaw argues that this is not just a cultural debate, but a fight over history, truth and democracy itself.Her solution is as simple as it is risky: talk back.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're probably a critical race theorist. |
| 0:03.0 | You don't have to be a lawyer. |
| 0:04.4 | You don't have to be an advocate. |
| 0:05.8 | You don't have to be an activist. |
| 0:07.7 | You just have to be literate about the way that race works in this world. |
| 0:12.6 | You don't want to help your children or other people understand how race might be working. |
| 0:17.7 | Then, okay, you are an opponent to critical race theory. |
| 0:20.4 | But if you think this is literacy, then you okay, you are an opponent to critical race theory. But if you think |
| 0:21.6 | this is literacy, then you're on our side on this debate. You can resist those who try to infantilize |
| 0:28.0 | you. You can resist those who tell you that your history is insignificant. Your story is irrelevant. |
| 0:35.6 | Your aspirations are unrealizable. Our only choice is to show up, bend that |
| 0:41.2 | arc of the moral universe towards justice. Hello and welcome to ways to change the world. |
| 0:50.8 | I'm Christian Guru Murphy, and this is the podcast where we talk to extraordinary |
| 0:54.7 | people about the big ideas in their lives and the events that have helped shape them. |
| 0:59.5 | My guest today is simply one of the most influential thinkers in the world, whose work has given |
| 1:04.6 | generations the language and framework to think about social justice and discrimination. |
| 1:10.4 | Kimberly Crenshaw is best known for being behind the term intersectionality, |
| 1:15.3 | the recognition that race, gender and class overlap to create unique forms of discrimination. |
| 1:21.0 | And she is a founding figure in critical race theory, the argument that racism is structural. |
| 1:26.8 | She has written a gripping memoir called |
| 1:29.0 | Backtalker, including a fiery epilogue about the backlash against her life's work, |
| 1:34.4 | the war on woke, and what it's really about. Kimberly, welcome. Thank you very much for coming. |
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