Often, when I’m discussing a mutual friend with another friend and they ask me to confirm a rumor they had heard, I reply “That’s not my story to tell.”

Lately, I’ve been thinking: Who gets to tell certain stories and whose story is it to tell?

I’m of Irish/Italian/German descent, I’m a Roman Catholic and I’ve been told that my paternal grandfather had some Native American blood in him, so I feel comfortable telling those stories. I am not Jewish or a member of the LGBTQ+/Two Spirits community, but I have been involved in telling their stories as well. For 28 years as a teacher, I related facts about other cultures and spoke to the cultures that my students very generously shared with me, but did not claim those stories as my own.

So, again…who gets to tell which stories?

In order for

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