Two women scholars (Khmer and Black) explore how our subjectivities as researchers influence how we understand, give honor to, and (re)present our participants' experiences in ways that value their humanity. Through phenomenological methods and poetic transcription, we seek more nuanced, creative, and powerful ways of positioning participants' critical agency and highlighting the essence of their racialized experiences. In conceptualizing how qualitative researchers can integrate their positions and subjectivities into the research process as an asset, we identify the significant contributions our perspectives make when more thoughtfully incorporated with the lives and stories of our participants.