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

The introduction to this chapter finds the authors meeting with Attorney General Sean Reyes at Utah’s Capitol Building. Some people in the building assume the authors are from Asia, and the authors notice how the passersby skew white, from the politicians to the visitors. Yet Reyes is Filipino Hawaiian and feels pride in his difference: He is “proud of being non-White and being American; to him, there [is] no gap that could make him belong any less to this country [...] He [makes] [the authors] feel that his power was as normal as any other White man in the building” (213). Segueing into the 11 stories that follow, the authors consider what life would be like if all people saw diversity as normal rather than whiteness as the norm.

Safia, a Black Muslim woman and pageant participant, embraces her difference and argues that the standard of beauty should not be based on whiteness. Footnotes describe the burkini (which she wears in pageants) and whitening advertisements in Muslim countries. Eryn’s former ballet teacher told her to change her natural Black hair. She then realized that God sees her as beautiful no matter her hairstyle or appearance. Footnotes address stereotypes about dreadlocks and natural Black hair, as well as the Black ballet dancers Raven Wilkinson and Misty Copeland.