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

The introduction to this chapter begins with the authors at Detroit Hart Plaza observing a statue called The Fist, which represents boxer Joe Louis’s fist. The tour guide tells them that the statue symbolizes Detroit as the “Comeback City,” referencing the fact that Detroit was more dangerous in the past. Another visitor assumes the reason for the name referenced the fact that the city had been mostly Black, but the tour guide denies this idea, then argues that she’s color-blind.

Shocked, the authors explain that “color-blind” also means blindness to racism. The tour guide is also unaware of the definition of gentrification and its effects on communities of color. A student named Kasim shares that some residents believe that the label “Comeback City” really means gentrification. Some also see The Fist as symbolizing the “tireless fight for justice” (147).

The authors argue that these incidents illustrate the importance of language and advocate for “bringing your consciousness into your words” (146). They elaborate that people’s vocabulary differs based on age, socioeconomic status, and other factors; however, they suggest that some people have a limited racial vocabulary because they lack concern about language. They observe that people misuse Martin Luther King’s ideal of a “color-blind society” to avoid the subject of race.

Ten stories about interviewees’ experiences with language follow. Mahala, who has a white lesbian mother and African American father, has light skin, freckles, and red hair, and white people often comment on her appearance. She has a son who is darker than she is and has faced more racism as a result. She calls herself biracial rather than Black because of this disparate treatment: “[M]y lived experience is different from people who are darker than me, and out of respect for that and honor for that, I don’t feel like I can claim the identity of a Black woman” (149).

Hunter is a white man whose grandfather once had a KKK meeting at his house. He argues that white people need to better understand their relationship to language: “[T]he best words to use are not any at all, at first. On the other hand, in social movements, White people need to speak up and be invested” (153). A footnote explains how white parents sent their children to private schools, or “segregation academies,” after integration, which relates to Hunter’s work at an elementary school with low-income students.

Lita and Treniya interrogate the use of “the n-word.” Lita, a white woman who is dating a Sikh who is Indian American, addresses discussions she has heard about whether people can use “the n-word” (a footnote addresses who can use it). Treniya, an African American woman, discusses how African Americans who use “the n-word” and slurs against women ignore the history of fighting against racism and misogyny. Names also matter: Her family name came from an enslaver. She elaborates on the complicated identities that arise when a person’s ancestors were enslaved, erasing knowledge of their true roots. A footnote describes how job applicants of color get fewer replies than white applicants.

Another racial slur is the term “Oreo,” addressed in Brontë’s interview. She is a first-generation African American who works in theater, and she recalls when a fellow elementary student told her she sounded white. A footnote enumerates the statistics on white actors in New York City; they are overrepresented compared to the city’s white population.

Friends Jasmine and Karli discuss race as a construct. Jasmine, a light-skinned Black woman, thought she was Indigenous American, and it became part of her identity until she realized her grandfather had lied about it. This showed her that race is a construct. Karli is white, but her family tried to convince her to claim Indigenous American heritage on college applications because she is 0.1% Navajo. In another incident, Karli’s mother told her that Jasmine got a scholarship just because she’s Black. Footnotes describe the concept of affirmative action and a court case prohibiting Indigenous American tribes from arresting non-Indigenous Americans who commit crimes on tribal land.

AJ, a Black man, thought he was a lesbian before coming out as transgender. He explains the importance of correct pronouns (discussed in a footnote on the concept of “getting she-bombed”). Other footnotes further address gender identity versus orientation.

Amanda, who is Thai and Indonesian American, addresses stereotypes about Asian people as submissive but also “threatening” in the workplace. Language matters to her because people often ask about her country of origin and have difficulty pronouncing her last name. Footnotes consider views of Asian people as more feminine than white people, the concept of the Bamboo Ceiling, and alternatives to “Where are you from?” such as “What is your cultural background?” or “How does your race or culture impact you?”

Siblings Aleksa and John M. have dealt with racist comments from classmates about their Hispanic identity. Accompanying footnotes address the difference between race and ethnicity, “illegal immigrant” and “illegal aliens” as derogatory terms, and the question of freedom of speech versus hate speech.

Newzad, who was raised Muslim, is from the Kurdistan region of Iraq, a distinction that matters because Kurds from the region don’t consider themselves Iraqi. He and his family moved to Turkey when he was three and to the US when he was seven. He describes Kurds’ part in US history, and a footnote outlines Kurdistan’s history and the number of Kurds in the US.