Intersectionality Matters!

By African American Policy Forum

What's Intersectionality Matters! about?

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

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53. All My Heroes Were Stol...

09.29.2023

To kick off Banned Book Week, host Kimberlé Crenshaw (@sandylocks) is joined by award-winning author George Johnson (@IamGMJohnson). They talk about the book bans that are sweeping the US, and George's new reality as one of the most banned Black ...

Intersectionality Matters! episodes:

09.29.2023 53. All My Heroes Were Stolen From Me To kick off Banned Book Week, host Kimberlé Crenshaw (@sandylocks) is joined by award-winning author George Johnson (@IamGMJohnson). They talk about the book bans that are sweeping the US, and George's new reality as one of the most banned Black ...
05.02.2023 52. Democracy at Stake - Fighting for the Freedom to Learn In this episode, host Kimberlé Crenshaw is joined by Cheryl Harris, Robin D.G. Kelley, and Janai Nelson. They explain what has been happening with the College Board’s proposed AP African American Studies course, share a close reading of what the ...
12.14.2022 51. #SayHerName: I Am My Sister's Keeper TRIGGER WARNING -- THIS EPISODE CONTAINS DESCRIPTIONS OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND SOUNDS OF GUNFIRE. PLEASE TAKE CARE WHILE LISTENING. In this episode, the sisters of Atatiana Jefferson, Amber and Ashley Carr, share a portrait of Atatiana’s life. Atatiana was ...
11.28.2022 50. Freedom Readers: Why Kids Should Learn About Racism This episode marks the beginning of a new IMKC series called Author Talks, where host Kimberlé Crenshaw sits down with the authors of books banned by anti-CRT legislation. They break down why the featured author’s work is so crucial to ...
11.06.2022 49. We Won't Black Down: Why Black Voters Matter Host Kimberlé Crenshaw is joined by Cliff Albright, cofounder of Black Voters Matter. Together, Crenshaw and Albright discuss voter suppression, gerrymandering and intimidation tactics -- and the ways they intersect to suppress the voices of Black communities today, and throughout ...
10.19.2022 48. Books Unbanned: From Freedom Riders to Freedom Readers From October 8th to the 21st, we’re hitting the road with the 10 Million More Black Voters initiative. We call our tour Books Unbanned: From Freedom Riders to Freedom Readers, and we're handing out 6,000 copies of books banned by ...
07.15.2022 47. Freedom Summer 2022: Teaching Truth to Power Drawing on the history of Freedom Summer, the African American Policy Forum launched its Critical Race Theory Summer School in 2020 as a response to the state-sanctioned murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and countless Black lives that spurred the ...
05.12.2022 46. Yes, We Still Need To Talk About Cosby In this episode, Kimberlé is joined by W. Kamau Bell, director of the four-part documentary series We Need to Talk About Cosby. Together, the two use an intersectional lens to explore Bill Cosby's descent from his seemingly immovable status as ...
04.07.2022 45. Was This the Last Black History Month? In this episode, Kimberlé is joined by thought leaders Jelani Cobb, Sherrilyn Ifill, and Cornel West, who share their perspectives on the threats to Black history and realization of Black freedom. The conversation is anchored in the question, "Was 2022 ...
03.02.2022 44. Drag At The Intersection In this episode, Kimberlé is joined by Bob the Drag Queen for a conversation full of critique and celebration of all things drag. Having once existed at the margins of legality and social acceptability, drag has now moved into the ...
01.13.2022 43. The Neverending Insurrection: Legacies of January 6th In this episode, Kimberlé is joined by an all-star panel to examine not merely the details of the shocking January 6th insurrection, but also the key undercurrents of racial resentment and right-wing authoritarianism that fed into the attempted coup. Together, ...
11.15.2021 42. Educators Ungagged: Teaching Truth in the Era of Racial Backlash For the last year, we have been surrounded by debates on Critical Race Theory spurred by the Right's organized, widespread campaign to stifle anti-racist education. For all of this debate, though, we hardly ever get to hear from the teachers, ...
10.15.2021 41. Believing Her: The Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill Hearings at 30 Thirty years ago this week, Anita Hill sat across an all-male, all-white Senate Judiciary Committee to testify that her boss, Supreme Court Justice nominee Clarence Thomas, had sexually harassed her. A historic moment that brought visibility to the issue of ...
09.21.2021 40. The Lies They Tell: Mass Media's Complicity in the Age of Disinformation Over the last year, the Right has ignited a widespread disinformation campaign around Critical Race Theory -- and mainstream media is fueling the fire. Mentions of CRT in the news grew exponentially this past year, with journalists often framing the ...
09.02.2021 39. The Insurgent Origins of Critical Race Theory Over the past year, Critical Race Theory has been increasingly misrepresented by the Right in an organized, widespread effort to stifle racial justice and gender equity, and weaken our multiracial democracy. In response to these attacks, AAPF held a 5-day ...
05.26.2021 38. Engendering the Politics of the Black Athlete When we think about the history of Black athletic resistance, we don't tend to think of Black women athletes like Wyomia Tyus, Rose Robinson, or Wilma Rudolph, who have all taken great risks to speak out against racial injustice. On ...
05.14.2021 37. Black Women's Health Through the Twin Pandemics On today’s episode, Kimberlé and a group of leading champions for equitable healthcare take us behind the “white coat” of medical racism, and explore its disproportionate impact on Black women and girls. Guests share their own stories being mistreated and ...
04.27.2021 36. A Love Song for Latasha The murder of 15-year-old Latasha Harlins by Soon Ja Du, a convenience store owner in 1991 became one of the flashpoints for the LA uprisings the following year. Yet while Latasha’s killing happened just 13 days after the Rodney King ...
04.16.2021 35. The Story Of Us (Part 2) With Bryan Stevenson, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Ruha Benjamin, and David Blight In the second half of a two-part episode on the stories that shape our understanding of America, Kimberlé Crenshaw and special guests explore the ways that film and other ...
03.20.2021 34. The Story Of Us (Part 1) In part one of a special two-part episode that asks, “What’s the story of America, and how can it be told differently?” Kimberlé Crenshaw sits down with a panel of esteemed thinkers and storytellers to examine the origins, implications and ...
01.30.2021 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 ...
01.20.2021 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 ...
12.11.2020 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 ...
11.24.2020 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 ...
10.30.2020 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 ...
10.20.2020 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 ...
10.09.2020 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 ...
09.11.2020 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 ...
08.29.2020 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, ...
08.16.2020 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 ...
07.28.2020 23. Politics, Power, and the Struggle Against Black Precarity On this installment of Under the Blacklight, Kimberlé Crenshaw sits down with Rep. Ayanna Pressley, Rep. Barbara Lee, and State’s Attorney Kim Foxx to discuss their experiences at the intersection of grassroots activism and electoral politics. Together, they speak about ...
07.12.2020 22. COVID, White Power, and the Unseeing of Race Again As the vicious spike in COVID’s case count rocks the nation, this installment of “Under the Blacklight” focuses on the off-staging of race after weeks of protests about racial injustice. We ask: What has become of the supposed reckoning with ...
06.26.2020 21. Under the Blacklight: Telling Stories of State Violence & Public Silence On this installment of "Under the Blacklight," the mothers and sisters of the #SayHerName Movement -- Fran Garrett, Rhanda Dormeus, Maria Moore, Sharon Cooper, Gina Best, and Sharon Wilkerson -- join Kimberlé Crenshaw for a very special episode. Through telling ...
06.16.2020 20. India Kager: A Mother's Story of Loss & Erasure On September 5, 2015, India Kager and Angelo Perry drove to Virginia Beach to introduce their 4-month-old baby Roman, to Angelo’s family. Unbeknownst to them, Virginia Beach police were tailing their car and while India, Angelo, and Roman were parked ...
06.10.2020 19. Under the Blacklight: The Fire This Time Alicia Garza, Robin D.G. Kelley, Devon Carbado, Maria Moore, and special guest AG Keith Ellison join Kimberlé Crenshaw for an emergency episode of “Under the Blacklight”, the 10th in the series, to address this historic moment of social and political ...
05.26.2020 18. Under the Blacklight: Narrating the Nightmare & (Re)Imagining the Possible Kiese Laymon, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Arundhati Roy join Kimberlé Crenshaw for the 9th installment of "Under the Blacklight." Together, they mine the complexities of narrative construction amid disaster, and shine the blacklight on the stories and counter-stories that shape ...
05.19.2020 17. Under the Blacklight: Virus, Voting & Vigilantism in Georgia On Pt 8 of “Under The Blacklight,” LaTosha Brown, Anoa Changa, Crystal Feimster, Talitha LeFlouria and Emery Wright join together to discuss vote suppression, state violence, vigilantism, and fatal public health experiments in the state of Georgia. With: LATOSHA BROWN ...
05.12.2020 16. Under the Blacklight: Mobilizing Whiteness to 'Re-Open America' On Episode Seven of “Under The Blacklight,” Carol Anderson, Alex DiBranco, Joseph Lowndes, Mab Segrest, Dorian Warren, and Jason Wilson unpack the central role that ideological Whiteness continues to play in the US response to COVID-19, including ongoing efforts -- ...
05.05.2020 15. Under the Blacklight: COVID in Confinement On Episode Six of “Under The Blacklight,” Josie Duffy Rice, Nina A. Kohn, Marc Lamont Hill, Rebecca Nagle, Ravi Ragbir, and Alyosxa Tudor map the devastating path of COVID through various locations of confinement — including prisons and jails, immigration ...
04.28.2020 14. Under the Blacklight: History Rinsed and Repeated On Episode Five of “Under The Blacklight,” David Blight, Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, William Darity Jr., Ibram X. Kendi, and Kate Manne navigate the historical contours of the pandemic, and the pre-existing inequalities that shape its impact. Building on last week’s interrogation ...
04.21.2020 13. Under the Blacklight: COVID & Disaster White Supremacy On Episode Four of “Under The Blacklight: The Intersectional Failures that COVID Lays Bare,” Paul Butler (Professor of Law, Georgetown; Author of Chokehold: Policing Black Men), Bree Newsome Bass (Community organizer & artist), Barbara Arnwine (Founder and Director, Transformative Justice ...
04.14.2020 12. Under the Blacklight: Mapping COVID's Racial Geography In the third episode in our new series, “Under the Blacklight: The Intersectional Vulnerabilities that COVID Lays Bare” (originally aired over Zoom April 8th), six incredible change-makers — Rosa Clemente (organizer and journalist; President and Founder of Know Thyself Productions), ...
04.07.2020 11. Under the Blacklight: COVID and Disaster Capitalism In the second episode in our new conversation series, “Under the Blacklight: The Intersectional Vulnerabilities that COVID Lays Bare” (originally aired over Zoom April 1st), five incredible change-makers join host Kimberlé Crenshaw for a conversation about building collective resistance and ...
04.03.2020 10. Age Against the Machine: The Fatal Intersection of Racism & Ageism In the Time of Coronavirus On this episode of Intersectionality Matters, Kimberle Crenshaw is joined by two timely voices -- Ashton Applewhite, author of This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism, and J.R. Fleming, Executive Director of the Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign -- to discuss how ...
03.31.2020 9. Under the Blacklight: The Intersectional Vulnerabilities that COVID Lays Bare The past several weeks have prompted unprecedented levels of turmoil and unpredictability due to rising alarm over COVID-19. While American society has taken precautionary measures to counter the spread of the virus, those most vulnerable to societal neglect remain most ...
01.02.2020 8. Defending the C.R.O.W.N.: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Nappyness There's a natural boom among women of African descent. Kinky, curly and coily hairstyles have joined cornrows, locks and twists as just a few of the looks that Black women, girls and femmes are rocking confidently and unapologetically. This Black ...
12.13.2019 7. When They See Her: The Story of Michelle Cusseaux December 14th, 2019 marks the fifth anniversary of the Say Her Name campaign, a movement founded to raise awareness of the names and stories of Black women, girls and femmes killed by police, and to provide support to the families ...
11.14.2019 6. What Slavery Engendered: An Intersectional Look at 1619 In this episode, Kimberlé chops it up with Dorothy Roberts, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and a leading scholar in race, gender, bioethics, and the law. In a conversation that merges intersectional inquiry with The 1619 Project, which ...
06.28.2019 5. Stonewall 50: Whose Movement Is It Anyway? Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, the wrenching demonstration against a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar and refuge for queer and trans people in Lower Manhattan. The courageous act of resistance that took ...
06.06.2019 4. The Anatomy of An Apology You’ve probably heard the phrase “Love means never having to say you’re sorry”--the misguided notion that love eliminates the need for apology. In politics, the love that mutes apologies is often same-party affinity--as in, “we know we’re on the same ...

Older episodes

Intersectionality Matters!

What's Intersectionality Matters! about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Intersectionality Matters! episodes:

53. All My Heroes Were Stolen From Me

52. Democracy at Stake - Fighting for the Freedom to Learn

51. #SayHerName: I Am My Sister's Keeper

50. Freedom Readers: Why Kids Should Learn About Racism

49. We Won't Black Down: Why Black Voters Matter

48. Books Unbanned: From Freedom Riders to Freedom Readers

47. Freedom Summer 2022: Teaching Truth to Power

46. Yes, We Still Need To Talk About Cosby

45. Was This the Last Black History Month?

44. Drag At The Intersection

43. The Neverending Insurrection: Legacies of January 6th

42. Educators Ungagged: Teaching Truth in the Era of Racial Backlash

41. Believing Her: The Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill Hearings at 30

40. The Lies They Tell: Mass Media's Complicity in the Age of Disinformation

39. The Insurgent Origins of Critical Race Theory

38. Engendering the Politics of the Black Athlete

37. Black Women's Health Through the Twin Pandemics

36. A Love Song for Latasha

35. The Story Of Us (Part 2)

34. The Story Of Us (Part 1)

33. And Still We Fight

32. If Hindsight Is 2020, Why Are We Still Not Saved?

31. #TruthBeTold: The Destructiveness of Trump's Equity Gag Order & What Biden Must Do Now

30. Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?

29. Black Men For Trump?: The Overdue Conversation on Patriarchy & Misogynoir in Black Politics

28. Having Our Say: Black Women Respond to the Vice Presidential Debate

27. Why the Court Matters: RBG's Legacy and the Fight She Leaves Behind

26. Black Girls Speak: Creating Community in the Summer of COVID

25. From the Base to the Face of the Party: Kamala Harris, Black Women & Misogynoir in the Election

24. Storytelling While Black and Female: Conjuring Beautiful Experiments in Past and Future Worlds

23. Politics, Power, and the Struggle Against Black Precarity

22. COVID, White Power, and the Unseeing of Race Again

21. Under the Blacklight: Telling Stories of State Violence & Public Silence

20. India Kager: A Mother's Story of Loss & Erasure

19. Under the Blacklight: The Fire This Time

18. Under the Blacklight: Narrating the Nightmare & (Re)Imagining the Possible

17. Under the Blacklight: Virus, Voting & Vigilantism in Georgia

16. Under the Blacklight: Mobilizing Whiteness to 'Re-Open America'

15. Under the Blacklight: COVID in Confinement

14. Under the Blacklight: History Rinsed and Repeated

13. Under the Blacklight: COVID & Disaster White Supremacy

12. Under the Blacklight: Mapping COVID's Racial Geography

11. Under the Blacklight: COVID and Disaster Capitalism

10. Age Against the Machine: The Fatal Intersection of Racism & Ageism In the Time of Coronavirus

9. Under the Blacklight: The Intersectional Vulnerabilities that COVID Lays Bare

8. Defending the C.R.O.W.N.: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Nappyness

7. When They See Her: The Story of Michelle Cusseaux

6. What Slavery Engendered: An Intersectional Look at 1619

5. Stonewall 50: Whose Movement Is It Anyway?

4. The Anatomy of An Apology

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