One of the things that most afflicts this country is that white people don't know who they are or where they come from."
- James Baldwin
Alex (she/they) is a queer, autistic-ADHD, German-American woman. She is a white settler on Turtle Island who grew up in the suburbs of Detroit, as a U.S.-born citizen, on Peoria, Anishinabewaki ᐊᓂᔑᓈᐯᐗᑭ, Bodwéwadmi (Potawatomi), and Mississauga land. A member of the Millennial generation, Alex grew up in a managerial/upper-class family with a handyman/stay-at-home dad and small-business owner/CEO mom. Much of Alex's family worked for General Motors, and from what she knows so far, her family’s wealth came from Fleer Brothers Coal, as well as just the advantages of being white. Alex has been greatly shaped by her privileged preK-12 education at Cranbrook Schools. She is fortunate to be academically-adept and to have received a full academic scholarship for university and a full assistantship for graduate school.
Alex is low-income, working in the fields of child-care/outdoor education and health & wellness. She is a member of Resource Generation, a social justice organization for young people with wealth/class privilege committed to the equitable distribution of wealth, land, and power; and a member of Down Home North Carolina, an organization building power for working families in North Carolina.
Alex is multiply-neurodivergent and disabled--a member of "the lost generation" of late-identified autistics & ADHDers (diagnosed at age 30). Alex navigates an eating disorder (ARFID) as a result of AuDHD burnout, late diagnosis, and lack of support. Alex is negatively affected by bi+ antagonism & erasure, hetero-, mono-, amatonormativity, societal promotion of the nuclear family, and capitalism. Though unmarried, Alex is grateful and privileged to have a caring, courageous, and vulnerable partner with whom to share the cost and work of living.
Alex is working to understand more of her own ancestry and the history in Europe of land enclosure, genocide of women+, fracturing of communities, and loss of language and culture and how that legacy affects us today.
Alex is low-income, working in the fields of child-care/outdoor education and health & wellness. She is a member of Resource Generation, a social justice organization for young people with wealth/class privilege committed to the equitable distribution of wealth, land, and power; and a member of Down Home North Carolina, an organization building power for working families in North Carolina.
Alex is multiply-neurodivergent and disabled--a member of "the lost generation" of late-identified autistics & ADHDers (diagnosed at age 30). Alex navigates an eating disorder (ARFID) as a result of AuDHD burnout, late diagnosis, and lack of support. Alex is negatively affected by bi+ antagonism & erasure, hetero-, mono-, amatonormativity, societal promotion of the nuclear family, and capitalism. Though unmarried, Alex is grateful and privileged to have a caring, courageous, and vulnerable partner with whom to share the cost and work of living.
Alex is working to understand more of her own ancestry and the history in Europe of land enclosure, genocide of women+, fracturing of communities, and loss of language and culture and how that legacy affects us today.
Those of us who are socially classified as white have roots deeper than “whiteness.” We are people – or, more accurately, peoples – whose identity and cultural center has been manipulated to serve a very specific function within capitalism. When we understand this story, we can more easily divest ourselves of the dysfunctional role we have been groomed to play, and join with people of color in the creation of a life sustaining society."
--David Dean, "Roots Deeper Than Whiteness"