How do I talk about my racial identity when people keep getting it wrong?

This happens more than you'd think, and it's exhausting. The thing is—you don't owe anyone a perfect explanation of who you are, especially not on demand. Sor Juana knew this intimately. She lived in a colonial system obsessed with categorizing people, yet she refused to let those categories define her intellectual worth or her right to exist fully. When someone gets your identity wrong, you have choices. Sometimes a simple correction works: "Actually, I identify as..." Sometimes silence is a boundary. Sometimes you explain your whole story; sometimes you don't. What matters is that *you* know who you are—not the version other people feel comfortable with. The hardest part isn't usually the conversation itself. It's the internal work of believing your own account of yourself when institutions and people around you have spent years suggesting something different. Start there. Write it down. Say it alone first. Notice what feels true in your body when you claim your own identity without audience or apology. Then, when you do speak, you're not asking permission. You're stating fact.