The Race Card Project
By Michele Norris
Jonathan Feldman,
Rochester, NY.
My high school was integrated, and we took such pride in this that Stevie Wonder found out: he made a surprise visit to our school in 1981 to promote the creation of the Martin Luther King Day holiday. I wish that all students could have the same experience that we did.
For more info on this event:
Jacquie Arnold,
Hopkinton, MA.
I was an A student at Key West High School when I graduated from Key West High School in 1981. While applying to top ranked colleges, my guidance counselor, Mrs. Adair, told me that Stanford University was not for students like me. I’m African American. I knew what she meant. I graduated from Stanford University in 1985 with a BS in Biological Sciences.
Raymond R. Rochester III,
Elkins Park, PA.
It was 1981, me being 31 years old … I was on my way to Paris, France … Aboard a Boeing 747, pre-take off, a French pilot was introducing himself … When he got to me he spoke, and upon my reply he instantly acknowledged, “Ahhhh, you are American”! … His statement struck me like a thunderbolt, because for the first time in my life it hit home that “an American” is exactly what I was, and am … Prior to this I would have simply described myself as Black, I hadn’t felt American, and America certainly hadn’t made me feel as such … On my return home I began to tell all, white and black, that a French pilot had to tell me my nationality … That illumination profoundly affected me, so much so that some time ago I shared it with the Philadelphia Inquirer … Apparently it affected them also, because they printed my experience once, and then again at the end of that year.
John D Gardner
Overland Park, KS
I was in high school from 1979 to 1981. During that time there were a few girls that I thought were pretty decent, who happened to be black. I’m white, and was awkward, lonely, scared, and so forth. I figured that if I asked them out I’d be seen as (A) desperate, (B) crazy, (C) trying to advance some agenda, (D) performing a dare, or (E) all of the above. So I chickened out… to my shame. Since then, I have had relationships with women – color irrelevant – and am now married. But still I wonder – was it lack of guts? Or was I racist without admitting it?
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