Beyond the Box: Rethinking Race and Identity

The E Word

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What if the categories we use to define race are more limiting than enlightening? In this episode, Karen and Brittany unpack actor Malik Yoba’s recent statement that he no longer identifies as a “Black man” but as “non-white”—a personal choice that opens the door to a much bigger conversation.

Together, they explore how racial classifications have shifted over time and across borders—from South Africa’s former system to the evolving definition of "whiteness" in the U.S. These categories, they suggest, are not fixed truths but flexible frameworks shaped by history, power, and politics.

The conversation turns deeply personal as they reflect on tracing African ancestry beyond race, reconnecting with specific cultures, regions, and identities that predate colonial borders. They also discuss how identities like Afro-Latino or white Latino often get flattened in current systems that don’t reflect cultural complexity.

Could technology help us move toward a more nuanced understanding of human diversity? And what might it look like to define ourselves based on connection, heritage, and lived experience rather than inherited categories?

This episode invites listeners to think differently about identity—not by denying race’s impact, but by imagining what could emerge if we approached it with more depth, history, and humanity.

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• Watch and Subscribe to The E Word on YouTube.
• Follow Karen on LinkedIn and learn more at Colossal Work.
• Follow Brittany on LinkedIn and learn more at BND Consulting Group.

Chapters

1. Beyond the Box: Rethinking Race and Identity (00:00:00)

2. Malik Yoba's "Non-White" Statement (00:01:04)

3. Race as a Social Construct (00:03:08)

4. African Ancestry and Tribal Identity (00:07:02)

5. The Concept of Whiteness vs White People (00:17:38)

6. Beyond Black and White Categories (00:31:55)

7. Reimagining How We Classify Ourselves (00:39:32)

8. Aliens, Dogs, and Future Solutions (00:44:46)