The Race Card Project
By Michele Norris
Jules M. Marquart,
Louisville, KY.
In Louisville during the pre-busing 1960s, this “screening” question was based on assumptions and generalizations about race and class. A high school in the West End of the city–African-American (Negro or Black back then) and poor; in the South End–white and red neck; and in the East End–white and privileged.
JuLaw,
Syracuse, NY.
When I was in Fla. in the 60s, Blacks (colored people, negroes,) or what name you may have been called, could not sit on the front sit a bus. We had to go into the back of the bus. Today, externally, it may not be that way, but in some cases, internally, it is still the same way with some whites.
Bonnie Shoultz,
Syracuse, NY.
I was a young person during the 1960s, and dreamed that this country would overcome its terrible history of oppression and enslavement of whole groups of people based on their race, culture, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and class. We have made many changes, but oppression and murder of people who are not white, straight, and safe economically is still prevalent. We must continue to support bridge-building, meaningful cross-group communication, and ways of giving real help to people who would otherwise not have the chance to develop themselves educationally and economically. Our culture must change dramatically–it has changed dramatically since the 1960s but we still find that, for example, one third of African-American men will be incarcerated at least once during their lives. Systemic racism and profiling creates the conditions for this and many other ways in which people are kept down.
Vicki DiPaolo,
Charleston, SC.
It is the basic instinct of survival that causes us to evaluate our environment and decide if what we see is helpful, benign, or dangerous. We don’t always get it right because ingrained thoughts are always right in today’s world. We began in communities where we all looked the same. If we came into contact with someone who looked different it usually meant one group would be taking what the other had and our very survival depended on keeping “ours”. Today’s world, including the last few hundred years, is totally different. World exploration has mixed cultures and in the beginning human rights were unheard of, it just wasn’t part of the picture. It was okay for one group to take others as slaves. It was okay to treat someone that wasn’t your class, race, or sex as subhuman. And the farther away from your mirror image the less human that individual was to you.
Leap into the second half of the 20th century. I wish that the love-in of the 60’s and 70’s where to bear fruit, and it has to some degree. We had varying success with race and sex issues. We cannot forget what others suffered to give us in law what we have now. It may not be in the real living world that we experience those rights but in written law the truth is spoken to declare what is morally right.
But the 1980’s gave birth to a badseed to counteract the fruits of the morally just. It began with a movie quote, “Greed is good.” It grew when people saw their homes not as a home but as something that could be bought and sold within months to get a bigger and bigger castle whether their family needed it or not. Soon the greed bug infiltrated our way of life. You didn’t work hard to get ahead, you worked “smart” in the free market of economy. Truth and the handshake deal were out, getting “yours” at any cost was smart. If you didn’t take advantage regardless of morals or law you were a chump. The rise of the Superstar who had no talent had arrived. Talent was out, fame was in.
White collar crime, street crime, crime against elderly and children. All at first shocked, then became commonplace. And who do we blame? Why going back to our most basic instinct of survival, we blame those most unlike ourselves. The rich blame the poor and middleclass who are lazy and steal everything they can get their hands on. The poor blame the middleclass who they can see firsthand, enjoying their homes, cars, and all the fun things a credit card can buy. And the middleclass blame the poor who they can see and will attack and kill the middleclass group to take their belongings. Middleclass blacks, whites, Mexican, and Asians will band together as a group to protect their community. The same is true for the rich and the poor. When the economic group becomes unstable the ethnic difference will become more important. And what of the elderly? Unless the noble virtues return and life’s knowledge becomes an access I feel that the greed on which our society is based on will make the elderly seen as taking up more than they give. Since no one sees their own time will come, social security and any safety net for the aged will be reduced and the nursing home will be a true nightmare.
What does this all have to do with Race? And what does “I’m buying what you’re selling.” mean? It’s that when we allow greed to rule our behavior, that we use intimidation to get what we want we have to be prepared for the doublesword of our behavior. I am a nurse. I care for people who for the most part have little financial strength. I see many spectrums of how people deal with their economic status. My favorite patients, of course, are pleasant, say please and thank you, and don’t blame me for being sick. In turn I respond to their needs as quickly as I can, say please and thank you, and don’t blame them for having to work to support myself and family. The worst patient is intimidating, sometimes physically, but mostly verbally or in by implying a financial threat of job loss or suing. Most people fall in the middle of these too groups, unfortunately, closer to the intimidating.
They say that all the world is a stage and we are all actors. Then your costume is what you choose to presentyourself. Yes, this is your clothing. But your presence, your mannerisms say much more. Unfortunately, greed has inspired the popularity of the person who takes whether they deserve or not. The ability to lash out physically gains respect. Images are shown on Facebook, Twitter, etc. boasting fights or outright assaults. A gaudy amount of riches is displayed by every level of society. And all of this is seen as normal. It makes me sad. And hopeless. Because all of this behavior is happening in the day to day lives of people who don’t watch PBS. And how many people will take the time to read what I’ve written in the age of Twitter? Still, I’ve written down what I believe is the beginning of an idea. And isn’t it better than not at all.
Jim Scherrer
Northport, MI
I grew up in Grosse Pointe Woods …. All Caucasian community born in 1950. Around 1960, give or take, I attended the Detroit Free Press sponsored golf school. When you completed the classes, you received a card that allowed one to play at any of Detroit’s city courses for 25 cents! My dad would take a bunch of us from the suburbs and drop us off at Chandler Park Golf Course and we would golf for the day and he or other parent would pick us up later. So here’s the Race part. As a kid, we’d play with 2nd shift or retired African American auto workers. So my first experience with Black people… Was playing golf and these guys couldn’t possibly have been more patient and accommodating of us kids golfing with them. In our time of watching Tiger Woods coming up with some notoriety of his success in a “white man’s sport”, my experience was much the opposite. Certainly, race has not left the golf discussion with recent “fried chicken” remarks. I love this project by the way.
Juleah Richards,
Chippewa Falls, WI.
BORN IN 1960; ST.PAUL MINN. LIVED IN WONDERFULLY MIXED NEIGHBORHOODS IN SOUTH MINNEAPOLIS UNTIL I WAS 10YRS OLD. MY MOM MARRIED A FARMER FROM RED RIVER VALLEY. WE MOVED TO SPOT 10 MILES FROM NORTH DAKOTA AND 90MI FROM CANADA. THERE WERE ONLY SCANDINAVIANS AND FRENCH FOLKS. NONE OF MY PEERS HAD EVER BEEN “EXPOSED” TO ANYONE WHO DID NOT LOOK LIKE THEMSELVES. I ADORED MOTOWN MUSIC (MY SIBS MUCH OLDER) AND THE JACKSON 5 WERE WHO I DANCED TO…WELL, MY NEW FRIENDS THOUGHT I WAS VERY EXOTIC WHEN I SHOWED THEM HOW TO “BLACK DANCE” – (FOURSQUARE ANYONE?). AT 10YRS OLD I WAS TAUGHT A BASIC TRUTH. PEOPLE FEAR WHAT THEY DO NOT UNDERSTAND.
Beatrice Goodman,
Becket, MA.
!n 1960 my Godfather, the artist David Burliuk once told me that ” soon everybody will be shades of tan – a good thing”. He was a Russian immigrant who painted (and saw) people differently.
Earlaine Williams,
Oakland, CA.
This is the question that was asked of me, when I was 17 years old, by the white man who was administering the driver test at the Depratment of Motor Vehicles in Richmond, CA in 1960.
I was behind the wheel and he was the person who would determine whether or not I received my driver permit. The bigger issue was my level of fear being alone on the road with this person.
Robert Amore,
West Hollywood, CA.
NYC Born, High School North Shore Long Island, University Evanston Ill., Manhattan Resident for 20 years. Moved to Los Angeles in 2005. To my shock not once but at least 6 times asked the above question. Why anyone would be asked this question is disgraceful. Observing Race discrimination and prejudice almost daily in Hollywood is extremely disappointing. Not since visiting Switzerland in 1985 and told to take the service entrance at my hotel or childhood prejudice anti-Italian sentiment on Long Island in the early 60’s have been experienced.
R.E.A.L. Talk,
High Tech Middle Media Arts
7th Grade Trailblazer
I used to think that I was not any other type of race than Mexican because I grew up around Mexican food and my nana used to speak Spanish a lot. Then one day my dad was talking about race and he told me I was Mexican, black, and white because of my mom. I am 25% white, 25% black because that is from my mom. From my dad I am 50% Mexican. I didn’t get bullied for my race. I also did not get any racist comments when I was growing up. Someone in my class thought that I was only Mexican, but I did not get offended by that because I am more Mexican than white and black. I used to hear on youtube and movies that white girls couldn’t dance and black people couldn’t do ballet. I also used to think that rap and hip hop was for black people only. I also used to think that country was for white people only until I heard a black person singing country music. My perspective changed after i heard a black person sing country (Darius Rucker) and a white person rap.
Race is Not Real
Race is not scientifically real, but socially real. Before 1960 black people weren’t allowed to sit in certain places of restaurants and were not allowed to use the same bathroom as white people. According to VOX a youtube channel race drives a lot of social and political outcomes. Race isn’t real. One of the first people who attempted to categorize race was a german scientist named Johann Friedrich Blumenbach around 1770 and 1776. He came up with Caucasian, Malaysian, Mongolian, Ethiopian, and American. In the 2000s the government decided Americans can be more than one race on the census. When the medical community uses race for health outcomes it is using race for a substitute for other factors.Such as where your ancestors came from or the same people who may have been put in the same group as you. There is no race chromosome in our DNA that people can point to because race does not exist. The reason why it matters is because there are a lot of wars going on because of race and that people think that it is real. In conclusion race is socially real and NOT scientifically real. You can’t look at someone’s DNA and say they are this type of race. This proves that race isn’t re
Tom Dierolf
Brevard, NC
If you saw a photo of me among asian, black and latino faces, and asked to pick the immigrants to the U.S., you would probably not pick me. But I immigrated from Germany in 1960, and I know that all of the others in the photo could have had family living for many generations in the U.S.
Jacob Morrison
New York City, NY
The Bronx
J.S.
Richmond, VA
My grandparents came to the US in the 1960s from Poland after living through the Nazis and the Communists. I won’t be saddled with crimes in which neither I nor my ancestors had any part. Grow up people.
Lawrence R. Bethea
Greensboro, NC
In 1960 as a young Afro-American child ( 6yrs.old ) growing up in Greensboro,N.C. (home of the civil rights sit-in movement), my mother took me shopping downtown. As we waited on the bus to carry us home, I noticed a large group of men walking down the street in white robes with hoods that covered their faces I became very excited, thinking that the circus was in town. I shouted out very loudly, “Look mom, the circus clowns”. I started to run towards them when my mother clasped my hand very tightly and looked me in the eye. With fear in her trembling voice, she said very lovingly to me,” NO SON, IT’S NOT THE CIRCUS”.
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