So You Want to Talk About Race

Ijeoma Oluo (b. 1980) is a Seattle-based Nigerian-American author who writes and lectures on issues of race, racism, and structural inequality in the US. She is editor-at-large at The Establishment, a publication based at Medium that Oluo helped launch. In 2015, she was named one of the most influential people in Seattle. In addition to issues of race, her work covers feminism, misogyny, intersectionality, online harassment, economics, and parenting. She has authored several viral articles, notably her interview with Rachel Dolezal, a White woman who passed as Black. Oluo worked in technology and digital marketing before launching a popular food blog enlivened with personal stories in her mid-thirties. The tenor of her writing changed following the death of Trayvon Martin in 2012, when she shifted her focus to issues of race and social justice. However, she continued to use personal anecdotes in her writing as a means of connecting to and activating Seattle’s predominantly White community.

Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw (b. 1959) is an American lawyer, civil rights activist, philosopher, and race theorist best known for developing the theory of intersectionality. She is Distinguished Professor of Law and Promise Institute Chair in Human Rights at UCLA, where she teaches courses on race, gender, and constitutional law.