Randall Kennedy is one the most outspoken and compelling commentators on race in America. Born in segregated South Carolina at the cusp of the Civil Rights Movement, Kennedy had early ambitions to become a Civil Rights attorney. The Rhodes Scholar graduated from Princeton University and then Yale Law School, earning a clerkship with Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall before joining the faculty of Harvard Law School.

Kennedy's work received national attention with the publication of his book Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word. In the book, Kennedy dissects the most notorious racial slur in the American language and also examines the linguistic baggage behind such words as 'racism,' 'discrimination,' and 'diversity.' His new book Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal explores the idea of African-Americans denying their heritage to get ahead in society. Kennedy is a longtime professor at Harvard Law School where he teaches courses on freedom of expression and the regulation of race relations.