In this chap­ter titled “Race,” the author explores the com­plex dynam­ics of race, iden­ti­ty, and prox­im­i­ty through the con­trast­ing lives of James Earl Ray, the man who assas­si­nat­ed Mar­tin Luther King Jr., and Book­er Wade, a Black man who offered sup­port to the author’s preg­nant moth­er. The open­ing reflects on Ray’s white-suprema­cist beliefs and his des­per­ate quest for a supe­ri­or sense of iden­ti­ty through white­ness. The author describes Ray’s fam­i­ly background—marked by pover­ty and criminality—and how he absorbed the racist atti­tudes of his fam­i­ly, par­tic­u­lar­ly from his father. The chap­ter high­lights the deep-root­ed self-loathing with­in Ray’s fam­i­ly, explor­ing how race has shaped their per­cep­tions amidst Amer­i­can soci­ety strug­gling with indus­tri­al cap­i­tal­ism.

Wade, on the oth­er hand, rep­re­sents a con­nec­tion to African Amer­i­can his­to­ry and strug­gle. His activ­i­ties with the NAACP fur­ther empha­size his com­mit­ment to fight­ing racial injus­tice. The chap­ter presents his trans­for­ma­tion from a fright­ened youth after a protest to a leader pur­su­ing pos­i­tive change with­in the com­mu­ni­ty and ulti­mate­ly start­ing a career in media.

The author delves into the idea of race as a social con­struct, illu­mi­nat­ing the com­plex­i­ties Lati­no indi­vid­u­als face in nego­ti­at­ing their iden­ti­ty in a sys­tem that often rel­e­gates them to a sec­ondary sta­tus. The chap­ter tra­vers­es his­tor­i­cal touch­points sur­round­ing racial and eth­nic mix­ing in Amer­i­ca, reflect­ing on the flu­id­i­ty of racial iden­ti­ty while show­cas­ing the divi­sions and ten­sions that per­sist.

As the nar­ra­tive weaves between per­son­al anec­dotes and his­tor­i­cal analy­sis, the author ulti­mate­ly high­lights the shared expe­ri­ences and fates that bind var­i­ous racial groups in the Unit­ed States, sug­gest­ing that the dis­tinc­tions of race—while pervasive—are arti­fi­cial con­struc­tions. The con­clu­sion of the chap­ter reaf­firms the notion that cul­tur­al and racial iden­ti­ties are inter­linked, hint­ing at the ongo­ing strug­gle for racial jus­tice and under­stand­ing in a mixed soci­ety. Through this lens, the author illus­trates how per­son­al his­to­ries inter­twine with broad­er racial nar­ra­tives, mold­ing iden­ti­ties that resist sim­plis­tic cat­e­go­riza­tions.