Liberal academic institutions frequently employ terms such as people of color (POC) in an attempt to acknowledge the structural racism, violence, and oppression towards racialized, ethnicized, and minoritized non-white populations. Yet, such terms and discourse dilutes the innately anti-black racism and oppression engraved in American social institutions. Themes such as “carceral progressivism” and the titular “progressive dystopia” capture the paradoxical reality of the anti-black realities in multiracial and multiethnic social justice education and movements. I found Shange’s positionality as a queer black body in the afterlife of slavery who worked six years at Robeson a particularly compelling case for the ethnographer as both the research instrument and the research subject. As insider ethnography, auto-ethnography, and reflexive feminist frameworks and methodologies continue to gain recognition in the discipline, how can we begin to use such frameworks effectively and responsibly? What considerations must we make when engaging with communities we also form a part of or at some level feel identified with. Might this become the new norm in the future? If so, is that an exclusively positive thing?