So You Want to Talk About Race

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. She founded the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies at Columbia University. Her publications include two co-edited volumes: Critical Race Theory (1995) and Words that Wound: Critical Race Theory, Assaultive Speech and the First Amendment (1993). She was awarded a Fulbright Chair for Latin America in Brazil in 2007. In 1996, she founded the African American Policy Forum, a think tank aimed at dismantling structural inequality. 

Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) was an African American Baptist minister and civil rights activist. He is best known for advancing social justice through civil disobedience and nonviolence, an approach inspired by his Christian beliefs and the example of Mahatma Gandhi. After receiving his PhD in theology from Boston University in 1955, he led the Montgomery bus boycott (1955), organized nonviolent protests in Birmingham, Alabama (1963), and helped coordinate the March on Washington (1963), where he delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. King received the Nobel Peace Prize for combatting racial inequality in 1964 and helped organize the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965.

His work as a civil rights activist put him on the radar of the FBI, which investigated him for communist ties. He was assassinated at Lorraine Motel in Memphis Tennessee by James Earl Ray, a fugitive from the Missouri State Penitentiary. King was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. Starting in 1971, cities and states across the US established Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a holiday. Oluo refers to King when addressing what she calls the “Martin/Malcolm dichotomy”: Those who are like Martin—a pacifist associated with love and equality—are considered worthy of support for their cause, while those seen as “angry” are derided.

El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, born Malcolm Little and called Malcolm X (1925-1965), was an African-American minister and civil rights activist best known for his work as a spokesperson for the Nation of Islam. He joined the organization while serving a prison sentence, becoming its most influential leader after being paroled in 1952. During his time with the Nation of Islam, he advocated for Black supremacy, Black empowerment, and the separation of Americans based on race. He was critical of the mainstream civil rights movement because of its emphasis on non-violence and racial integration. His work drew the attention of the FBI, which investigated him for links to communism.

During the 1960s, Malcolm X grew disillusioned with the Nation of Islam and its leader, Elijah Muhammad. He turned to Sunni Islam and the civil rights movement after making the Hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca. He increasingly came into conflict with the Nation of Islam and was assassinated by three of the organization’s members. On the one hand, Malcolm X is a controversial figure accused of preaching racism and violence. On the other hand, he is celebrated within African-American and Muslim-American communities for advancing racial justice. Oluo refers to Malcolm X in her discussion of tone policing of people who fight for racial justice: Those seen as angry and proud, such as Malcolm X and Al Sharpton, are treated as unworthy of support.