“As a queer Black woman living in a white supremacist world, the traumas I endure and the impacts on my health are never-ending.”

The point of this essay is to encourage a critical approach to the relationship between race and data. It points to three questions that anyone working with data should ask if they are going to be collecting and using data about race. § If we are not careful, data can divide and sort us in exactly the sort of essentialising ways that the colonial idea of race supported. But if researchers ask the right questions, and know their history, we can use data to advocate for racial justice.