

Intersectionality Matters!
African American Policy Forum
Intersectionality Matters! is a podcast hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw, an American civil rights advocate and a leading scholar of critical race theory.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jan 30, 2021 • 1h 12min
33. And Still We Fight
In this post-inauguration roundtable, Kimberlé and her guests grapple with the events of the past month, and contemplate the crossroads that the country now finds itself in. As we prepare for four years of Democratic leadership, how must we organize ourselves in order to fight for a more just future, rather than merely a return to the past? And what becomes possible when we embrace a political agenda that centers intersectionality as a means for achieving that future?
With:
BARBARA ARNWINE - President and Founder, Transformative Justice Coalition
KIM FOXX - State's Attorney for Cook County, Illinois
JOIA CREAR-PERRY - Founder and president of the National Birth Equity Collaborative
KIRSTEN WEST SAVALI - Senior director of content at iONE Digital
Hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw (@sandylocks)
Produced by Julia Sharpe-Levine
Edited by Julia Sharpe-Levine and Rebecca Scheckman
Additional support provided by Myles Olmsted, Nicole Young and the African American Policy Forum
Music by Blue Dot Sessions
Follow us at @intersectionalitymatters, @IMKC_podcast

Jan 20, 2021 • 1h 9min
32. If Hindsight Is 2020, Why Are We Still Not Saved?
In this episode, Kimberlé is joined by a panel of veteran UTB guests to unpack the learnings from a year of pandemic, political revolution, and purported racial reckoning. and to help envision a path forward as our nation reels in the aftermath of a white supremacist insurrection. As the panelists contextualize the events of January 6th through a critical race theory lens, they discuss how a national history of appeasing white supremacist interests and denial of racial terror have laid the groundwork for our present reality. Furthermore, they explore what the new Biden administration must consider in order to truly address white supremacist terror at its root.
With:
CAROL ANDERSON - Professor of African American Studies, Emory; Author, White Rage
DAVID BLIGHT - Professor, Yale University; Pulitzer Prize Winning Author, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom
ANOA CHANGA - Electoral justice reporter and organizer; Host of “The Way with Anoa”
JOE LOWNDES - Professor, University of Oregon; Co-author of Producers, Parasites, Patriots: Race and the New Right-Wing Politics of Precarity
Hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw (@sandylocks)
Produced by Julia Sharpe-Levine
Edited by Julia Sharpe-Levine and Rebecca Scheckman
Additional support provided by Myles Olmsted, Nicole Young and the African American Policy Forum
Music by Blue Dot Sessions
Follow us at @intersectionalitymatters, @IMKC_podcast

Dec 11, 2020 • 1h 15min
31. #TruthBeTold: The Destructiveness of Trump's Equity Gag Order & What Biden Must Do Now
In this episode, Kimberlé is joined by a panel of scholars and civil rights leaders to explore the impact of the Trump administration’s “Equity Gag Order,” and the president’s crusade against racial justice and gender equity. The conversation includes insights from leaders of the National Fair Housing Alliance and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund about how the Equity Gag Order’s list of “prohibited concepts” has impaired their work, as well as a discussion of the importance of narrative and storytelling and how the Trump administration has engaged in historical revisionism in their attacks on racial. As the panelists explore how we can fight back against the Equity Gag Order and how to pressure the Biden administration to rescind it on day one, they also place the order in historical context as part of a long tradition of state repression of civil rights movements.
With:
CAROL ANDERSON - Professor of African American Studies, Emory; Author, White Rage
RACHEL GODSIL - Professor of Law, Rutgers; Co-Founder, Perception Institute
LAURA GOMEZ - Endowed Chair at UCLA Law; Professor in Sociology, Chicana & Chicano studies
CHARLES R. LAWRENCE III - Professor, William S. Richardson School of Law; Critical Race Theory pioneer
JANAI NELSON - Associate Director-Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF)
LISA RICE - President and CEO, National Fair Housing Alliance
Hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw (@sandylocks)
Produced by Julia Sharpe-Levine
Edited by Julia Sharpe-Levine and Rebecca Scheckman
Additional support provided by the African American Policy Forum
Music by Blue Dot Sessions
Follow us at @intersectionalitymatters, @IMKC_podcast

Nov 24, 2020 • 1h 15min
30. Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?
After perhaps the most important election of our lifetimes, the real work begins. On this episode, Kimberlé sits down with a brilliant group of political thinkers and leaders to analyze the 2020 election and the challenges that remain. The discussion includes insights as to how local organizers turned Georgia blue for the first time in a generation, what strategies progressives might employ to keep pressure on President-elect Biden, and why in 2020, President Trump appears to have made electoral inroads with every demographic but white men. The panelists also discuss Kamala Harris’ historic ascension to the nation's second highest office, despite facing unparalleled levels of misogynoir.
With:
ALICIA GARZA - Co-Founder, Black Lives Matter; Principal, Black Futures Lab
EDDIE GLAUDE JR. - Professor, Princeton; Author of Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own
JANINE JACKSON - Program Director, FAIR; Producer/Host of CounterSpin
REP BARBARA LEE - U.S. Representative for California's 13th congressional district
KATE MANNE - Professor, Cornell; Author of Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny
VIET THANH NGUYEN - Professor, USC; Pulitzer Prize author, The Sympathizer
KIRSTEN WEST SAVALI - Executive Producer, Essence Magazine
EMERY WRIGHT - Co-director, Project South; Organizer and political educator
Hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw (@sandylocks)
Produced by Julia Sharpe-Levine
Edited by Julia Sharpe-Levine and Rebecca Scheckman
Additional support provided by the African American Policy Forum
Music by Blue Dot Sessions
Follow us at @intersectionalitymatters, @IMKC_podcast

Oct 30, 2020 • 1h 8min
29. Black Men For Trump?: The Overdue Conversation on Patriarchy & Misogynoir in Black Politics
In this “barbershop edition” of Intersectionality Matters, which was recorded live on October 28th, Kimberlé is joined by a panel of activists, scholars, and writers to discuss, patriarchy, misogynoir, and why a small but meaningful minority of Black men, including prominent celebrities like 50 Cent and Ice Cube, are choosing to support President Trump this election. Led by AAPF Co-Founder Luke Charles Harris, this roundtable conversation explores what genuine self-love looks like for Black men, the relationship between racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia in the Black community, and how we can imagine different, more empowering futures for ourselves and our communities.
With:
WADE DAVIS - Former player and first LGBT inclusion consultant at the NFL
LUKE CHARLES HARRIS - Co-founder, African American Policy Forum; Associate Professor, Vassar College
KIESE LAYMON - Author of Heavy and Long Division; Professor, the University of Mississippi
MARLON PETERSON - Host of DEcarcerated Podcast; Author of Bird Uncaged: An Abolitionist’s Freedom Song (upcoming)
ALVIN STARKS - Director of the Equality Team, Open Society Foundations
Hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw (@sandylocks)
Produced by Julia Sharpe-Levine
Edited by Asal Ehsanipour, Rebecca Scheckman, and Julia Sharpe-Levine
Additional support provided by the African American Policy Forum
Music by Blue Dot Sessions
Follow us at @intersectionalitymatters, @IMKC_podcast

Oct 20, 2020 • 1h 6min
28. Having Our Say: Black Women Respond to the Vice Presidential Debate
On this Black Girl Roundtable, Kimberlé is joined by Rep. Barbara Lee, Alicia Garza, Kirsten West Savali, and Barbara Arnwine for a dynamic conversation about the Vice Presidential debate, vote suppression, Trump's increased popularity with men of color, and the gentrification of the Democratic Party.
With:
BARBARA ARNWINE - President and Founder, Transformative Justice Coalition
ALICIA GARZA - Co-Founder, Black Lives Matter; Principal, Black Futures Lab
REP BARBARA LEE - U.S. Representative for California's 13th congressional district
KIRSTEN WEST SAVALI - Executive Producer, Essence Magazine
Hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw (@sandylocks)
Produced and edited by Julia Sharpe-Levine
Additional support provided by Rebecca Scheckman, Andrew Sun, Darci Crager, and the African American Policy Forum
Music by Blue Dot Sessions
Follow us at @intersectionalitymatters, @IMKC_podcast

Oct 9, 2020 • 1h 8min
27. Why the Court Matters: RBG's Legacy and the Fight She Leaves Behind
In this episode, Kimberlé speaks with six leading scholars about the legacy of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Court’s largely undersung role in the battle for our democracy, and the profound consequences of the Left’s failure to prioritize the courts over the last several decades.
With:
DEVON CARBADO - Professor of Law, UCLA; Author, Acting White? Rethinking Race in “Post-Racial” America
ERWIN CHEMERINSKY - Dean, UC Berkeley School of Law; Author, We the People: A Progressive Reading of the Constitution for the Twenty-First Century
SUZANNE GOLDBERG - Professor of Law, Columbia; Founding Director, Sexuality & Gender Law Clinic at Columbia
CHERYL HARRIS - Professor of Law, UCLA; Author, “Whiteness as Property”
SHERRILYN IFILL - President and Director-Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense Fund
MELISSA MURRAY - Professor of Law, NYU, Author, “The Equal Rights Amendment: A Century in the Making"
Executive Order on Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-combating-race-sex-stereotyping/
Hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw (@sandylocks)
Produced by Julia Sharpe-Levine
Edited by Julia Sharpe-Levine and Rebecca Scheckman
Additional support provided by the African American Policy Forum
Music by Blue Dot Sessions
Follow us at @intersectionalitymatters, @IMKC_podcast

Sep 11, 2020 • 51min
26. Black Girls Speak: Creating Community in the Summer of COVID
On this episode, Kimberlé Crenshaw is joined by Dina Wright Joseph, director of AAPF’s Young Scholars Program, a leadership pilot program designed to develop a new generation of intersectional researchers and to build community. Featuring the voices of 12 Black women from universities around the country, this episode explores the profound impact that COVID-19 has had on young Black women and their communities, and AAPF’s efforts to build a virtual community to address it.
Featuring Dina Wright Joseph and members of AAPF’s Young Scholars Program (Full bios & more information: aapf.org/ysp)
Hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw
Produced and Edited by Julia Sharpe-Levine
This episode was co-produced by Alexandra Moore & Whitney Thomas
Additional support provided by the African American Policy Forum
Music by Blue Dot Sessions

Aug 29, 2020 • 1h 18min
25. From the Base to the Face of the Party: Kamala Harris, Black Women & Misogynoir in the Election
On this episode, six leading politicians, cultural critics, and political activists come together to discuss politics, Kamala Harris' historic vice presidential candidacy, and the intersection of racism and sexism in the 2020 election.
With:
BARBARA ARNWINE - President and Founder, Transformative Justice Coalition
DONNA BRAZILE - Veteran Democratic political strategist
STATE'S ATTY. KIM FOXX - State's Attorney for Cook County, Illinois
REP. MAXINE WATERS - U.S. Representative for California's 43rd congressional district
KIRSTEN WEST SAVALI - Executive Producer, Essence Magazine
Hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw (@sandylocks)
Produced by Julia Sharpe-Levine
Edited by Julia Sharpe-Levine and Sarah Ventre
Additional support provided by the African American Policy Forum
Music by Blue Dot Sessions
Follow us at @intersectionalitymatters, @IMKC_podcast

Aug 16, 2020 • 1h 9min
24. Storytelling While Black and Female: Conjuring Beautiful Experiments in Past and Future Worlds
On this episode, Kimberlé Crenshaw is joined by the revolutionary and genre-defying writers N.K Jemisin and Saidiya Hartman, whose work demands a radical reimagination of our present by archiving and writing the violence of the past into imaginations of a limitless future. By inserting Black women into narrative spaces that they have largely been written out of, these women illustrate first hand how we can resist narrative erasure and become the authors of our own stories.
With:
SAIDIYA HARTMAN - Professor and scholar of African American literature and history, Columbia University; Author of Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments; 2019 MacArthur Fellow
N.K. JEMISIN - Science fiction and fantasy writer; Author of the Broken Earth series, the Inheritance Trilogy, and the Dreamblood Duology; Winner of 3 Hugo Awards
Hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw (@sandylocks)
Produced and Edited by Julia Sharpe-Levine
Additional support provided by the African American Policy Forum
Music by Blue Dot Sessions
Follow us at @intersectionalitymatters, @IMKC_podcast