Backtalker Quotes

“At some point, future history books will tell stories about what is happening now. Maybe, they will tell the story of how money, new technologies, and old entitlements held us back long enough to forget the spirit of freedom that inspired ordinary people to fight against the odds. Maybe that story will reflect intersectional failures that undermined our ability to see the fight for democracy and the fight for racial justice are inseparable, the mirror images of the succubus twins that Morrison* invoked. My hope, though, is that the future will look back to tell a different story, one about how the spirit of freedom was nurtured by talking back against agendas that turned on ignorance and forced compliance. I hope ours will be a legacy that lives on through efforts to nurture, sustain, and grow a democracy that is shaped not from top down by race, gender, power, and privilege, but instead by the victories of those who rose up to create new possibilities for everyone.”
― Kimberlé Crenshaw, Backtalker: An American Memoir

“I have watched the experiences that have shaped my life and the words I fashioned to capture it be stolen, redefined, and weaponized in a campaign of mass destruction. To paraphrase Kendrick Lamar, this effort to destroy these words is bigger than the theory. It is about beating us down in a war to reclaim dominion of the few over the many.”
― Kimberlé Crenshaw, Backtalker: An American Memoir