Kimberlé Crenshaw (Wikimedia Commons)
Alumna Kimberlé Crenshaw ‘81 has been invited to deliver the annual Martin Luther King lecture on Monday, Feb. 19 in Sage Chapel. Crenshaw was credited in coining the term “intersectionality” in the context of fashioning legal remedies.
MLK’s power came from the simplicity of his message — he sought racial justice in a color-blind world. In contrast, many critics contend that Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality is more complex and is race-conscious. They argue that intersectionality has evolved to the point of establishing a list of identity groups with a pecking order that determines which groups should receive the strongest remediation for historic wrongs.
Crenshaw attended Cornell from 1977 to 1981, a period known for extensive cooperation between black students and faculty and their Jewish counterparts on social justice issues. It will be interesting to hear Crenshaw relate her Cornell student experiences to intersectionality and those who attribute the current campus antisemitism to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts.
The speaker selection is the work of the following committee:
- Kofi Acree – Director, John Henrik Clarke Africana Library; Curator, Africana Collections, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections
- Kristin Dade – Co-Director, Office of Academic Diversity Initiatives
- Shura Gat – Associate Dean of Students and Director of the Gender Equity Resource Center (GenEq) (formerly the Women’s Resource Center)
- Joel Harter – Associate Dean of Students and Director of the Office of Spirituality and Meaning Making (OSMM) and Cornell United Religious Work (CURW)
- Leslyn McBean-Clairborne – Director, Greater Ithaca Activities Center
- LaTivia McCowan – Residence Hall Director, Ujamaa Residential College
- LeeAnn Roberts – Director, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Bowers College of Computing and Information Science
- Sharifa Wip – Associate Dean of Students and Director of Black Student Empowerment
- Victor Younger – Director, Diversity and Inclusion, Nolan School of Hotel Administration
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Speakers for this annual commemoration provide a “critical examination of King’s legacy and contemporary issues, according to Cornell. The purpose of the MLK lecture is as follows:
“The annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration at Cornell aspires to be a cross-campus and community partnership that makes accessible the life and legacy of Dr. King for contemporary times. The King commemoration brings together Cornellians, Ithaca College, and Ithaca community colleagues to plan and participate in this event. The Commemoration seeks to bridge the gap between memory and history: the memory of an earlier generation that participated in or lived during the black freedom struggle of the 1950s and 1960s, and the history of a faraway time for persons born after this period.”
Last year’s MLK lecture by Richard Ford anticipated the Supreme Court decision in Students for Fair Admissions and advocated shifting focus away from “diversity” as a goal replacing it with an interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment to protect “racial justice”. Crenshaw’s MLK lecture bookends the Supreme Court decision with an opportunity to discuss next steps in light of the court’s actual decision.
Seating in Sage Chapel is limited. Advanced seating reservations are awarded on a first-come, first served basis. Advanced registration for the livestream is available here.
