He is the Michael R. Klein Professor of Law at Harvard University and his research focuses on the intersection of racial conflict and legal institutions in American life.

[1] Kennedy has written seven books: Interracial Intimacies: Sex, Marriage, Identity and Adoption; Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word; Race, Crime, and the Law; Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal; The Persistence of the Color Line; For Discrimination: Race, Affirmative Action, and the Law; and Say It Loud!

His father often spoke of watching Thurgood Marshall argue Rice vs. Elmore, the case that invalidated the rule permitting only whites to vote in South Carolina's Democratic primary.

"This book is a brave, honest, forceful intervention in that debate", wrote William A. Galston and David Wasserman in the Wilson Quarterly, adding, "With restrained passion, he documents the myriad ways in which our legal system has betrayed the principle of fair and equal treatment for African Americans."

Kennedy argues in the book that African Americans have suffered at the hands of the criminal justice system, but also claims that blacks have committed a "notably large proportion" of the crimes that people are most afraid of (robbery, rape, murder, aggravated assault).

He has written for academic and popular journals, published several books, and served on the editorial boards of the magazines American Prospect and The Nation.

"One of the things they [critics] find disconcerting is that I ask questions", Kennedy told Lawrence Donegan in the London Observer.

"The power of 'Nigger,'" Charles Taylor wrote in Salon, "is that Kennedy writes fully of the word, neither condemning its every use nor fantasizing that it can ever become solely a means of empowerment.

"[12] In Interracial Intimacies: Sex, Marriage, Identity and Adoption (2003), Kennedy attempts to bring greater understanding to the racial issues that continue to trouble American society.

"In spite of the law ... some individuals managed to maintain honorable and nuanced relationships with people they were legally forbidden to approach as equals.

[clarification needed] "Over the years", wrote Derrick Bell, "Professor Kennedy has become the impartial, black intellectual, commenting on our still benighted condition and as ready to criticize as commend.

But it is not improper for a society to protect itself from individuals who rape, murder, assault, or rob others in violation of laws that set boundaries that, if crossed, make one vulnerable to imprisonment.

[22] Through numerous appearances on the lecture circuit, Kennedy continues to promote debate on hot-button racial issues in the public arena.

"Against black pessimists", wrote Galston and Wasserman, "[Kennedy] argues that substantial progress has been made toward the ideal of color-blind justice.

[26] In May 2023, Kennedy gave a long form interview on the Lex Fridman podcast entitled ‘The N-Word - History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power’.