The Intersectionality of Race, Gender, and Sexuality: Sharing Findings from Students’ Inquiry by Dr. Ashley D. Black with Alison Burski, Lauren Cox, and Abha Niraula

Dr. Ashley D. Black is an Assistant Professor of English Education at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, MO.  She teaches courses in Young Adult Literature, adolescent literacy, and writing pedagogy and is interested in Critical Whiteness Studies and racial literacy development.  Her most recent article, “Starting with the Teacher in the Mirror: Critical
Reflections on Whiteness from Past Classroom Experiences,” appeared in a spring issue of The Clear House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues, and Ideas.

The Intersectionality of Race, Gender, and Sexuality: Sharing Findings from Students’ Inquiry by Dr. Ashley D. Black with Alison Burski, Lauren Cox, and Abha Niraula

In my 16-week Young Adult Literature (YAL) course, students begin compiling a text set during the second half of the semester.  Working in small groups, students develop an essential question and read YA texts that seek to answer that question.  I guide students to the Young Adult Library Services Association’s (YALSA) Awards Lists, including the ALEX Awards, Printz Award; the YA Section of Goodreads; and, of course, Dr. Bickmore’s YA Wednesday.  Before selecting their texts, we work on developing essential questions to guide their inquiry, analyzing YAL in complex ways.

This past spring semester, my students read various genres of YAL that all re-presented issues of race in various ways.  From Dear Martin by Nic Stone to Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi, students worked to expand their racial literacy through these texts.  To expand students’ understandings of identity as multi-faceted, I asked students to develop essential questions for their text sets that contains the concept of intersectionality.  Alison, Lauren, and Abha chose to explore the intersectionality of race, gender, and sexuality within their text set, guided by the following essential question:  How is race, gender identity and sexual identity present expressed of identity in young adult characters in YA fiction?  

What follows here is a selection of annotations from Alison, Lauren, and Abha’s text set.  Each annotation contains a summary as well as a short discussion of how each text addresses the essential question.  Hopefully some of these texts will be new to you—as they were to me—and you discover some new texts to add to your own bookshelves and classroom libraries.

The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta (Balzer + Bray, 2020) is a novel in verse that follows Michael as he grows and explores his own racial and sexual identity throughout his youth. The novel begins with Mike as a child wishing he could play with Barbies rather than Ninja Turtles and desiring to kiss and play house with his male friends rather than his female friends. In addition to that, he learns to navigate his racial identity as a half Jamaican, half Cypriot Greek son to a single mother. He struggles to feel enough for either side of his family, including styling his hair in locs to emulate Bob Marley. In high school, he acts on his first real crush, and gets rejected. In the process, he gains a new friend, Daisy, who becomes almost like family, going so far as to travel with them to Greece for the holiday. 

When attending a gay club, Daisy expresses some homophobic sentiments related specifically to lesbians, which degrades the relationship as they leave for university. While at university, Mike continues to struggle with his racial identity, not feeling enough to join any of the racially based societies on campus. Instead, he finds himself joining the Drag Society, which gives him the tools and opportunity to explore, accept, and appreciate his identity as a whole, rather than half of anything. 

The Black Flamingo confronts the expression of identity head-on and highlights the queer and race related desires for community and to feel enough. Throughout the text, Michael struggles with understanding his identity as a biracial and gay individual. He often feels like he is not enough of one race, as he spends time feeling out of place with his mother’s and father’s sides of the family. This theme of identity exploration begins very early in the novel, when Michael’s mother says, “Don’t let anyone tell you / that you are half anything. / You and Anna are / simply brother and sister. // Don’t let anyone tell you / that she is your half sister. // Don’t let anyone tell you / that you are half black / and half white. Half Cypriot / and half Jamaican. // You are a full human / being. It’s never as simple / as being half and half” (Atta 34). This theme continues through to the end of the novel when Michael expresses his identity publicly through the Drag Society’s performance.

Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert (Little, Brown, and Company, 2017) puts a diverse twist on the coming of age story. Colbert explores themes of personal development in regards to sexuality, religion, and mental health through the heroine, Suzette. Suzette comes back home to Los Angeles for the summer, after having spent a year at a boarding school in Massachusetts. As she is exploring her sexuality with her roommate, away from her tolerant friends and family, Suzette faces some stigma at boarding school. She falls victim to derogatory slurs. She is also nervous to discuss her religion with her classmates who would not understand her faith. She had converted to Judaism after being introduced to it by her mother’s significant other, Saul, and his son, Lionel. Despite not being related by blood, Suzette has a strong connection to them and considers Lion to be her brother. This close relationship is tested upon her return, partly due to Lion’s mental health and partly due to Suzette’s personal feelings about Lion’s new girlfriend. Suzette was prompted to attend boarding school after Lion’s first hypomanic episode that led to the subsequent diagnosis of bipolar disorder. As Lion stops taking his medication and relies on his new relationship to seek happiness, Suzette considers discussing it with her parents but ultimately decides against it. The feeling she has for Lion’s new girlfriend, as well as her childhood friend Emil further complicates things for both Suzette and Lion. Not long after a big argument, Lion disappears and is found the next morning, seemingly having had a hypomanic episode. Suzette tells the family about how Lion had not been taking his medication and apologizes for keeping it a secret. Lion returns home and the siblings repair their bond. Suzette decides to go back to boarding school and confront herself as she opens up about her intersectional identities.​

As Lion stops taking his medication and relies on his new relationship to seek happiness, Suzette considers discussing it with her parents but ultimately decides against it. The feeling she has for Lion’s new girlfriend, as well as her childhood friend Emil further complicates things for both Suzette and Lion. Not long after a big argument, Lion disappears and is found the next morning, seemingly having had a hypomanic episode. Suzette tells the family about how Lion had not been taking his medication and apologizes for keeping it a secret. Lion returns home and the siblings repair their bond. Suzette decides to go back to boarding school and confront herself as she opens up about her intersectional identities.​

Little & Lion confronts intersectionality head on. The main character, Suzette is a Jewish Black woman, who is slowly coming to terms with the fact that she is interested in both men and women. Despite being from Los Angeles, both her and other Black characters face instances of microaggressions. There is an instance where someone at a party makes a joke about how Black people cannot swim. Colbert takes it a step further by displacing the heroine from the often-tolerant Los Angeles to Massachusetts.  Here, she is not only struggling with her exploration of her sexuality but is also a victim to intolerance. In the midst of this air of intolerance sits Suzette’s religious identity. Being Black and Jewish and having a family that does not always look like her also leads Suzette into hiding her religion from her new classmates. Suzette’s identity is different and unique, but her story rings true for a lot of people who are trying to find their footing in a world that reminds you that you are different in your intersectional identity. I believe that this is well suited for a high school audience as the subject matter touches on themes about growing up, with sexual imagery as well as other sensitive topics.

More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera (Soho Press, 2015) is the story of Aaron Soto, a young Latino boy growing up in the Bronx. He has a close-knit group of friends that he grew up with, all of whom are struggling in one way or the other. Aaron recently lost his father to suicide, his “sort of best friend” Brendan’s parents are in prison for separate crimes, his friend Collin is expecting a child with his girlfriend, Nicole, at age sixteen. On top of all of that, they are still reeling from the death of their friend, Kenneth, who was gunned down. Kenneth’s brother Kyle had had a sexual relationship with someone’s girlfriend, someone who mistook Kenneth for Kyle. The friend group has not seen Kyle in a while, and rumor has it that he got a Leteo procedure done, to erase his memories associated with his brother. Aaron often wishes to go through with the procedure, mostly as a joke. But his girlfriend Genevieve is keeping him happy. While he often thinks about his dad, he is happy to be around his friends and his girlfriend. He has also recently started making friends with this new guy, Thomas. As his and Thomas grow closer together, there are certain feelings that he doesn’t completely understand surfacing. Aaron’s friends and even his girlfriend seem to be upset that he is getting closer to Thomas, but Thomas truly understands him. Aaron begins to understand his own identity, eventually even coming out to Thomas. However, Thomas is straight and Aaron is heartbroken. He wants to get his memories erased, but his mother cannot afford it. While this is going on, Aaron’s friend suddenly turns on him. After a hateful attack on him, old memories resurface and Aaron remembers going through the Leteo procedure once before. He remembers coming home to his father, who had committed suicide after finding out about his son’s sexual identity. He remembers his secret relationship with Collin, and he remembers wanting to not be gay anymore. The pain of heartbreak along with the pain of everything else pushes him towards the procedure again. The novel ends with Aaron deciding against the procedure, however not before we learn that he has anterograde amnesia from the attack. Aaron chooses to be more happy than not in the moment. ​

More Happy Than Not looks at intersectionality through many different lens. Class and race are tied very close together here. Aaron lives in a diverse neighborhood in the projects. He grew up with friends who used derogatory slurs frequently like it was nothing. Additionally, his father comes from a background where masculinity is intertwined with worth in a toxic way. Aaron’s father is unable to accept him because of the way he grew up. His friends are unable to accept him for similar reasons. Finally, the internalized homophobia that Aaron and Collin experience is also a product of their own upbringing. More Happy Than Not gives us an insight into a literal and metaphorical process of internalized hatred that can be a product of our environment. This book is suited for a high school audience since it contains sexual imagery, suicide, and other sensitive topics.

Aiden Thomas’s Cemetery Boys (Swoon Reads, 2020) is another opportunity to explore intersectionality. Yadriel is desperate to be accepted as a brujo by his family. As a transgender sixteen-year-old at the start of his transition, Yadriel is fighting to be seen as a man by his father and his extended family, who still believe he should be fulfilling the woman’s role. In an attempt to prove himself to his traditional Latinx family, he and his cousin Maritza sneak into the temple and perform his quince ritual, a ritual that should occur when a child turns fifteen, without the family’s support. To their shock and relief, the ritual works, and Yadriel is granted the ability to perform the duties of the brujo, including summoning ghosts to help them pass on. Unfortunately, the summoning does not go entirely as planned, as he summons classmate Julian Diaz, who recently passed, and won’t move on until he finds out what happened to him.

Cemetery Boys directly addresses the unique challenges that come from being at the intersection of gender and racial identity, as Yadriel works for acceptance of his identity after coming out to his family. Most of his traditional Latinx family, including his own father, does not accept that he is a man and should be treated as such. “He can’t just choose to be a brujo, he’d heard Enrique say from the kitchen one night as he and Camila spoke quietly over sweet coffee. It’s not a choice, his mother had said, her voice calm but firm. It’s who he is” (Thomas 32). This text provides clear and positive representation for trans individuals, including providing examples of how to discuss and address them. Throughout the novel, Yadriel is referred to with he/him pronouns, even when characters are discussing him prior to his transition. Along this same vein, this novel never uses Yadriel’s deadname, despite other characters using or seeing it periodically. Instead of explicitly stating his deadname, the narrative simply states that his deadname is said or written, never providing the reader with this information. This reflects the appropriate ways we can communicate with and about trans individuals.

What are some other good books for exploring intersectionality?
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Until next time.