Unveiling the Untold Stories: Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw’s Backtalker Challenges America’s Narrative
She shows us this starkly from the opening, with an experience every Black girl experiences: the moment she realizes she doesn’t fit the idea of girlhood we’re told. What begins as a young girl’s pursuit to be chosen as the beautiful princess in her all-white class’s story time becomes the first crack in the facade of an equitable world, when she realizes she would never be picked for a role described as “beautiful and pure.”
The memoir moves through Willam Crenshaw’s early days in Canton, Ohio, a childhood grounded in a strong sense of identity instilled by her father, an educator, and her mother, a music teacher and third-generation ‘backtalker.’ Evenings at the dinner table with her older brother centered on community, civil rights, and Blackness.
