The authors report how the cultural identities of three Black professors influence their pedagogy at a rural, predominantly white, university in the USA. This study includes the voices of two other colleagues as critical friends to the discourse to facilitate perspective and completeness. Findings from the study revealed that the sense of being or identity did contribute to pedagogical style, perceptions of and responses to personal and professional challenges, including interactions with colleagues. The authors recommend the use of co-auto-ethnographic self-study with critical friends as an important methodology to guide faculty members as they engage in social justice teaching practices.