Kimberlé Crenshaw: A Trailblazing Shero Equipping Marginalized Communities with the Lens and Language to Define Their Experiences

Kimberlé Crenshaw is a personal shero of mine for many reasons. Her work has given me a framework to understand my own lived experiences and those of others who share my identity. She has dedicated her life’s work to interrogating the failures of anti-discrimination laws—not just in failing to uproot disparities, but in some cases, facilitating them.

More than 30 years ago, Crenshaw was at the forefront of a student-led movement at Harvard Law School. At the time, Harvard had never had a woman of color on its faculty. Students, including Crenshaw, were galvanized by the departure of Professor Derrick Bell, a critical voice in challenging racial inequities in legal education. Their movement aimed to desegregate the faculty, to disrupt the illusion that law was somehow neutral or objective when, in reality, it reflected the values and perspectives of those who wrote and interpreted it.

This struggle underscores a larger truth: Inequities exist across all the systems we interact with. When we ignore disparities under the guise of color blindness, we not only fail to address them—we allow them to persist. De facto segregation, systemic discrimination, and racial injustice do not disappear simply because we refuse to acknowledge them.

The Role of Critical Race Theory

Crenshaw, alongside scholars like Derrick Bell, Alan Freeman, Richard Delgado, Cheryl Harris, Charles Lawrence, Mari Matsuda, and Patricia J. Williams, helped shape Critical Race Theory (CRT)—a legal and analytical framework that emerged from the Civil Rights Movement. CRT challenges the notion of color blindness and argues that racism is deeply embedded in American society. Ignoring race does not eliminate racism; it perpetuates it.

The core tenets of Critical Race Theory include:

• Endemic Racism – Racism is not an aberration; it is deeply ingrained in our social, political, and legal systems.
• Race as a Social Construction – Race is not biological; it is a social invention used to uphold hierarchies.
• Differential Racialization – Different racial groups are assigned shifting roles based on societal needs.
• Interest Convergence/Materialist Determinism – Racial justice advances only when it aligns with the interests of those in power.
• Voices of Color – The lived experiences of people of color are essential in understanding racism and developing solutions.
• Anti-Essentialism/Intersectionality – Identities are complex and shaped by multiple factors, including race, gender, class, and more.

CRT is a body of scholarship that equips professionals with the tools to identify and challenge racism at every level—individual, institutional, and systemic. If you understand the significance of this work, then you, too, are engaging in critical race theory.

Moving Beyond Anti-Discrimination to Real Equity

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts attempt to redress the failures of anti-discrimination laws in uprooting disparities. Crenshaw’s work reminds us that true justice requires more than policy changes—it demands a critical examination of the structures that uphold inequality. CRT remains a vital framework for understanding and dismantling these injustices.

Kimberlé Crenshaw’s legacy is not just in the theories she has developed but in the movements she has inspired. She has given us the language to name injustice, the tools to challenge it, and the vision to create a more just world.