I figured I could work hard and get what I earned; my advisor had different plans — By Shermaine, as told to Winona Guo and Priya Vulchi As a kid growing up in Washington D.C., I made the connection between hard work and academic achievement, and how these things can change your socioeconomic status. I told myself: “If I work hard enough, I will achieve my dreams.”…

My family didn’t put any kind of gender norms on me, because our language doesn’t allow for it — By Ahyoka, as told to Winona Guo and Priya Vulchi I’m a Keetoowah Cherokee, full-blooded on my mother’s side, though I’m light-skinned and light-eyed. At 27 years old, I’m one of the youngest first-language Cherokee speakers, since we spoke only Cherokee at home. …

When I was 16, our predominantly Black softball team played the state championship in Harrison, home of the KKK — By Juanenna, as told to Winona Guo and Priya Vulchi Little Rock is a good ol’ boy city, and Arkansas is a good ol’ boy state. That means: White-male dominated, run, and operated. Old money controls everything, and all old money is probably rooted in something wrong. Matter of fact…

The foundation of all American music — blues, bluegrass, swamp grass, and everything else — is African music traditions — By Queen Esther, as told to Winona Guo and Priya Vulchi People are caught up in the fantasy of the Whiteness of country music. It’s just White, White, Whitey White White, and it’s something that they think belongs to them. Well, it doesn’t. I came up with Black Americana in…

How one category became the norm and one ‘the other’ — By Winona Guo and Priya Vulchi The racial categories that we’re familiar with developed only 200 years ago, primarily by England and Spain. Otherwise cut off from the rest of the world, England kept on invading Ireland, labeling the people as savages — in fact, the cruel saying “the only…