Cheryl Harris

Cheryl I. Harris is an American legal scholar and critical race theorist. She is a professor of civil rights and civil liberties and the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Chair at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law.

Harris gained national recognition with her paper, "Whiteness as Property", published in the June 1993 edition of the Harvard Law Review, which argues that "the law has come to embody and legitimize benefits that accrue to citizens just because they’re white" and examines how white racial identity operates as a legally protected form of value.

Harris received her Bachelor of the Arts degree from Wellesley College in 1973 and her Juris Doctor degree from the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law in 1978.

Harris was married to activist Keorapetse Kgositsile, together having rapper Earl Sweatshirt. On December 7, 2024, she and Earl met at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and spoke on academia and music.