Know My Name: A Memoir

In this final chapter, Miller discusses the significance of writing her book. She explains, “[W]riting is the way I process the world” (315). She hopes that as she processes her own experience with sexual assault, she will “show how victims are treated at this moment in time, to record the temperature of our culture” (315).

Miller documents the work of Michele Dauber to recall Judge Persky. By January 2018, Miller reports that “nearly ninety-five thousand local signatures were gathered and submitted” in support of this campaign (318). As the election nears, Miller must implement safety measures to protect herself. Conspiracy theories circulate that call into question the identity of Emily Doe. Some believe that sexual assault advocates wrote the letter, as the language “is so sophisticated from someone who was so young” (319). Although slightly flattered, Miller resents “the implication that victims are frauds, liars, not to be trusted” (319).

In reaction, Miller describes her background with writing. She details her mother’s history as a writer who struggled for free speech in China. These experiences lead Miller not to take “[her] freedom of speech, [her] abundance of books, [her] access to education, [her] ease of first language for granted” (320-21). Miller takes time to express her gratitude to those who “taught [her] how to see the world, to pay attention, to speak up, because [her] opinion was worth something, the ones who told [her] [she] deserved to be heard and seen” (321).