Tell Me Who You Are: Sharing Our Stories of Race, Culture, & Identity

The authors describe visiting key Civil Rights Movement sites in Montgomery, Alabama. Butler Browder (interviewed in the chapter) calls them to set the record straight. He is the son of Aurelia Eliscera Shines Browder, one of five women who led the movement. Along with Mary Louise Smith Ware, Jo Ann Gibson Robinson, Claudette Colvin, and Susie McDonald, she asked Martin Luther King Jr. to speak for them when they realized that gender limited their voices’ effectiveness. The authors realize they have limited knowledge about the Civil Rights Movement, in part because history erases women’s contributions. They explain that identity does not just encompass race but also factors like sex, ability, age, orientation, religion, immigrant status, gender identity, ethnicity, and class.

They explain intersectionality, a concept that has existed since the 1960s but was coined as a term in 1989 by Kimberlé Crenshaw. While they asked interviewees about the impact of intersectionality on them, they note that the point of intersectionality is not merely to name “all of our oppressed identities [...] and, crucially, not to use them as excuses to avoid the central injustice of race” (85). Instead, they advise consideration of how people can unite to bring down the systems responsible for all discrimination; they also note the importance of seeing how race is linked to other identities. This chapter includes 11 interviews.

Lauren, whose mother is Chinese, describes how her cerebral palsy, gender, and disability intersect, explaining that people with disabilities constitute the world’s largest and most underrepresented minority. A footnote expands on this idea by describing the inaccessibility of many subway stations for people with disabilities.

Keah, a Black woman with a disability, elaborates on the role of social media in connecting her with others with disabilities and teaching her self-love. Deb, as a Latina with bipolar disorder, also addresses the intersection between race and ability. She notes the misuse of the word “crazy,” and footnotes detail the number of people with severe mental health conditions in the US, as well as the number of people with disabilities around the world.

Ahyoka “Niki” has intersecting identities as a Keetoowah Cherokee, a Catholic, a transgender woman, and a Two-Spirit person. (Two-Spirit is explained in a footnote, as well as the number of people who speak the Cherokee language.) She describes how the Cherokee language doesn’t have a word for gender. Deja, a biracial transgender woman who has been a sex worker, discusses sex work in the transgender community, and footnotes provide statistics on the number of Black and Black multiracial, Latino, and white transgender sex workers; the notes also explain the terms “cisgender” and “transgender.”

Tracye, who is unemployed, queer, unhoused, and formerly lived in foster care, notes the impact of race on his orientation. He observes that he still experienced struggles as a Black man after marriage equality legislation passed. He describes the discrimination he faced in school and from the police, noting that Black police officers can be as racist as white ones. A footnote references the Great Black Migration.

Barry is a Muslim reporter who fled to the US after being tortured in Gambia. He notes that refugees can stay grounded in their cultural identity while adopting a new culture. Hamza, Ayesha, and Saboor are Pakistani Muslims, and Hamza sees herself as a feminist even though she says that men dominate Islam and Pakistan. Footnotes detail statistics about crimes against Muslims in the US, the Israel-Palestine conflict, and the post-traumatic stress disorder many refugees face.

Shermaine is a Black woman who works at the National Science Foundation to empower women in science; she lacked educational opportunities as a child and experienced discrimination during her doctoral program. She has also faced racism because of her marriage to a white man. Footnotes detail the number of Black and Latino doctoral students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields who drop out, statistics on white-Black interracial couples, and the number of Black women who acquire degrees and jobs in science.

Butler describes the Rosa Parks case and how four other Black women (including his mother Aurelia) took on the Parks lawsuit. These women were arrested in bus boycott incidents before Parks, but she was chosen as the representative because she was light-skinned and “mild-mannered.” He explains their role in civil rights: “Our society was driven by men and what men say, but those men were afraid to challenge the segregation laws. They were afraid that they would be killed. They were afraid that they would lose their jobs. These women didn’t care” (104). A footnote explains the real facts behind the Rosa Parks story and Jo Ann Robinson’s role in the movement.

Vaughn, a Lakota Indian and community organizer focused on policing and prison, explains “poverty culture” as coming from colonialist practices; he also describes the impact of US history and laws on Lakota culture. Footnotes detail the numbers of Indigenous American inmates and discuss Indigenous American boarding schools in the 1870s.