When They Call You a Terrorist Major Figures

Patrisse Khan-Cullors

Patrisse Khan-Cullors (born 1983), the central figure of the memoir, becomes one of the founders of the Black Lives Matter movement. She was born in Van Nuys, a small, lower-income community in Los Angeles, California. During her childhood, her father figure Alton is often absent, while her mother is often busy working to support the family. As a result, Patrisse is raised mostly by her older brother Paul. She grows up disadvantaged and poor and watches helplessly as her brothers, Paul and Monte, are mistreated by police. Always a gifted student, she flourishes at the magnet school Grover Cleveland High, where she learns her sexual identity and starts gaining the skills for her eventual work as a community organizer.

Patrisse’s struggle against injustice begins on a personal level as she tries to help her brother Monte, who is incarcerated and mentally ill. This struggle will culminate in 2013 when she becomes a cofounder of the Black Lives Matter movement. She is polyamorous and bisexual and practices the Ifa religion. To combat injustice, she believes strongly in intersectional approaches that consider the layered forms of discrimination people endure. Even when faced with personal danger and labeled a “terrorist,” she continues to fight for justice. Her responses to threats or interpersonal conflict tend to emphasize de-escalation, compassion, and understanding rather than violence or condemnation.

Cherice

Cherice is the mother of Patrisse, Paul, Monte, and Jasmine. Paul, Monte, and Jasmine are fathered by Alton Cullors; however, Patrisse is the biological daughter of Gabriel Brignac. Cherice is a hardworking but often absent mother, sometimes working three jobs to support her family. She is also a devoted Jehovah’s Witness, although having a child out of wedlock led to her being disassociated from the church and disowned by her devout parents. Nonetheless, she continues to attend Kingdom Hall services faithfully until years later when she is reinstated as a full member.

She shows a certain degree of guilt and shame in her inability to provide for her children, but they always support her, nonetheless. Patrisse credits her as an example of hard work and compassion. Also, despite her religious devotion, she is accepting and supportive of her daughter’s queer identity.

Alton Cullors

Alton Cullors is the father of Paul, Monte, and Jasmine, as well as a surrogate father figure to Patrisse during her early years. Although he never marries the mother of his children, he sometimes lives with them. Later he lives with his daughter Jasmine in Las Vegas. As a factory worker and mechanic in the automotive industry, he struggles to find steady work with the industry’s decline. Although quintessentially a masculine figure, he shows tenderness and vulnerability after he fears losing his connection to Patrisse when she learns of her biological father’s existence.

Monte Cullors

Monte is the younger of Patrisse’s two brothers. Like his brother, Paul, he grows up to be a tall and imposing man, making him a target of the police despite his gentle nature. Complicating his problems is the emergence of his mental illness in the form of schizoaffective disorder, which the police misconstrue as dangerous behavior and which the prison system fails to treat properly after his incarceration. He is tortured in prison, and although his sister wants to help him, he struggles to accept her help because he is used to dealing only with male figures, even if they have harmed him. After being released and getting proper medical help, Monte still struggles to maintain stability because of few opportunities and the pernicious nature of his illness. Eventually, through community support and Patrisse’s efforts, Monte manages to live a more stable life and stay out of prison.

Gabriel Brignac

Gabriel Brignac (1959–2009) is the biological father of Patrisse, although she is already 12 years old when she learns of his existence. He was a soldier at a young age, and Patrisse believes he picked up his drug habit during his military service. Although 12-year-old Patrisse is uncertain about him at first, he quickly wins her over with his warmth and generosity. He is a recovering addict enrolled in a 12-step program. Patrisse accompanies him to some of his meetings, where she learns the importance of accountability. He loves playing baseball and organizes family baseball tournaments with his brothers that Patrisse enjoys attending.

He is the glue that holds the Brignac family together. When he goes to prison after relapsing from his drug addiction, the family drifts apart, and Patrisse finds herself isolated. Released from prison when Patrisse is 20, he is imprisoned again three years later. During this time, he volunteers for the dangerous work of firefighting to reduce his sentence. Within a year of his second release in 2009, he dies of a heart attack. Patrisse ensures he has a proper funeral so that he can have the dignity in death he never had in life. Much like Cherice, he accepts Patrisse’s queer identity.

Paul Cullors

Paul is the elder son of Cherice and Alton Cullors and elder brother of Patrisse. As the oldest child living in a family with an absentee father and overworked mother, Paul becomes something of a surrogate parent to his siblings. At a young age, he learns to cook, clean, and take care of his brother and sisters. He is the most stable of the siblings. Although he is responsible and careful, he is still mistreated by police because he is a young Black man. 

Mark Anthony

Mark Anthony is Patrisse’s first husband and also the first cis hetero man who has ever attracted her. Described as tall, thin, light-skinned, and handsome, Mark Anthony is a gentle, sensitive man whom Patrisse first bonds with by consoling him when he cries after a screening of Spike Lee’s (born 1957) film Bamboozled. At first, she is confused by her attraction to him because he isn’t queer, but she comes to accept it. Their relationship begins as a friendship that becomes physically intimate but is never rooted in sex. A graduate student studying Chinese medicine, he devotes his life to healing and helping others. He helps convince Monte to go to the hospital to treat his mental illness. Although he and Patrisse eventually drift apart and separate twice, they do so on amicable terms and remain friends.

Future

Future is a genderqueer Canadian activist and artist from Toronto whom Patrisse meets in 2014 through an Internet video chat. At first, their relationship is entirely professional, as Future wants to start a Black Lives Matter chapter in Toronto and Patrisse helps. However, a mutual attraction blossoms almost immediately. After Patrisse becomes pregnant with her son, Shine, and the baby’s father’s struggle with grief leaves him unable to support Patrisse emotionally, Future offers support instead. The new couple wants to live together, but Future is initially prevented from entering the United States. In 2016, after Future successfully emigrates from Canada, the couple marry and live together.

Naomi

Naomi is Patrisse’s cousin from the Brignac side of her family and the niece of Gabriel. A gifted athlete, she excels in track and field competition and, like Patrisse, goes to Cleveland High School. Patrisse considers her an important source of support and inspiration. Openly queer, Naomi serves as a mentor for her cousin when Patrisse begins to explore her own queer identity. However, Naomi reacts with dismay when she learns Patrisse is also bisexual because she is frightened of the danger that being bisexual might bring to Patrisse. Nonetheless, she is supportive and is also Patrisse’s only link to the Brignac family during Gabriel’s incarceration. Naomi becomes the victim of physical abuse from her mother, who doesn’t accept her daughter’s queerness and tries to disown her.

Jasmine Cullors

Jasmine is the youngest of the four Cullors siblings. Patrisse thinks of her as the baby of the family, someone to be cherished and protected. In her early years, Jasmine lived at home with her siblings and mother, but as a teenager, she relocated to Las Vegas to live with her biological father, Alton Cullors. Although she is the youngest of the children, she ends up being taller than Patrisse, reaching nearly six feet tall.

Carla

Carla is Patrisse’s loyal, longtime friend, first befriending Patrisse in 11th grade and then remaining a lifelong source of support. She meets Patrisse through their mutual friend Cheyenne, who is also Patrisse’s girlfriend for a while, but Patrisse and Carla remain friends even after Cheyenne drifts out of Patrisse’s life. Whenever Patrisse struggles financially or needs help, Carla often appears to help her or offers what money she can spare. Carla and Patrisse live together for a few years in the home of their art teacher, during which time they become as close as family.