Thank you to the Missouri Review for picking this as its Poem of the Week! Inspired by James Baldwin’s novels, where characters must either refuse or risk recognition across lines of race, class, faith, desire, and regional culture, this poem gathers stand-up-style bits that dramatize moments of resistance within communities and unexpected recognition across them. Through humor, I hope to reflect on how different, or similar, we actually are to those who insist we are not. And, of course, to give people a chuckle.