This Research Commentary draws on the articles in the March 2022 issue of JRME , engaging with the notion of labor as a key concept to push the field toward novel understandings of equity in mathematics education. We introduce the concepts of identity work and racialized emotions to provide an alternative reading of the articles in that issue, arguing that attention to the interplay of these two concepts is vital to consider issues of equity because mathematics identity intersects with race, gender, class, and sexuality, among other social identities historically marginalized in the classroom. We argue that a focus on such interplay could help to revitalize the discourse on equity in mathematics education across the globe.