The Race Card Project
By Michele Norris
Brailynn Billingsley,
Opelika, AL
People judge me because I’m darker toned than my peers. If they were to talk to me, they would understand I am the sweetest seed in a peach. I’m bullied because of my skin, so when i retaliate with my words, I’m portrayed as an angry “monkey.” I’m actually the nicest “human” being.
Sarah Cedar,
Castle Rock, WA
I grew up overseas where I was a white girl amid a sea of brown faces. I was the odd one out at school and I was bullied by the girls. This experience has had life long effects because I can still remember how scared I was. How totally alone I felt. Now I’m an adult living in a mostly white world. It’s been 30 years since I moved back to the states. It pains me when I see someone get bullied for the color of their skin. I know exactly how it feels….
Andrea Lopez,
Sacramento, CA.
When confronted with the question of whether or not I’ve experienced racism in my life, I always remember the first time I felt discriminated against. I was about twelve years old and I was meeting my best friend’s father for the first time. She moved to California from Georgia with her mother and siblings, her father followed later and in the end he did not stay. I always felt welcome by her family and never even thought about discrimination, so when I met her father I was taken aback by his question. “You Italian, then?”, I immediately understood what he was really asking. I answered “No, I’m Hispanic” but quickly felt the need to validate myself so I offered up the fact that I come from Native American ancestry as well. I suppose I felt the need to let him know that my roots were imbedded in US soil unlike his European ancestors that migrated here. It was a rude awakening for a child and it had lasting effects on me. I was now aware that other people were aware of my skin tone and ethnicity. Even being called “blackie” due to my darker summer tan by the overweight red-headed freckle-faced bully in school did not make me think about race. As an adult I see that the boy who bullied me had insecurity issues of his own, bless his heart. So, it took an adult from the Deep South to rain on my parade, he introduced racism to me and I finally understood what it meant to not be white. My friend’s father ended up moving back to Georgia after a domestic dispute became physical between him and her mother. I was glad he was gone because I never felt comfortable around him, I always knew he disapproved of me. From then on I was always aware of my surroundings and I knew that I would not always be accepted and that I would have to learn to be strong and not let other people’s prejudices interfere with my life. As an adult living in California I rarely experience racism, but I do think about it often, especially when I’m thinking of planning a trip to other states. I research the percentage of the Hispanic population to see if I would be accepted as a visitor and I often worry because my boyfriend is white and some people in different states may not be so welcoming of the two of us. It definitely adds a different perspective to life, I may be free to roam about the country, but will I be accepted?
Daniel Knoll,
Saint Louis, MO.
These may or may not represent how I feel about race,,,I am in Missouri, and grew up in the town right next to Ferguson..i am a white guy, but the adopted son of a Native American (full Cherokee) mother, and German -American father…not to minimize the legitimacy of the real race issue, and the consistant racism Blacks folks still face, but I am a very pale-skinned white guy, and have received some harassment /bullying because of it…I watched the PBS special about Ferguson MO, and the larger associated issues, and it inspired me to write several of them, and share them,,again, some are my feelings, and some are about the larger issue, and some are reflecting things I’ve heard..
Roxie Tenequer,
Lawton, OK
My son begged me for two years to cut his hair. Kids at his school constantly teased him and told him he looked like a girl. I told him to ignore them and explained that not all people teach their children about different cultures. Things didn’t change and my son started begging me to cut his hair. We finally let him cut his hair after five years of having long beautiful braids. This broke my heart but my Son said he is treated better at school now. I hope this helps people understand to teach their children or anyone to learn about other race differences. I hope one day my Son will grown his hair again and never let others make him feel bad about who he is and where he came from.
Linda,
Wichita, KS
In middle school I got bullied by these 2 Mexican boys about my natural big curly hair and got my hair pulled because I had to explain to them it was not a wig.
Rob Silva
Oakland, CA
First generation with Indo-Dutch/ El Salvadoran heritage. Family has seemingly always been the non-white in the group, especially when listening to the my parents’ stories of assimilation. So strange then when my son was bullied at his new school in Berkeley for being the white kid.
Nicholas Le,
Sanger, CA.
Since im Asian people always say im really good at math. Some people ask me if I can do their homework. I really suck at math so I couldnt even do my own homework. One day there was this dud in middle school and he told me to do his homework, this dude was known to be mean, but i took it and purposly messed up all the problems and put down all the wrong answers. When I was in middle school they would usually pass back the hw that needed to be re- done, so that guy had to redo his whole assignment. Never again did anyone ask me to do their homework again.
Cameron Warren,
Downingtown, PA.
I’m a very Irish child, and being proud of that has always been hard due to the fact I have red hair and freckles. While most say, “oh but you’re white, whats the problem” the problem is just that. I have been bullied and teased almost my whole life and not being able to fight it because your own race degrades you, but if I were to say not to be mean to “gingers” they say you’re not a race, sometimes they say not people at all, and to just deal with it. I’m stuck at a cross roads where many sub-groups have found themselves, where they cannot find comfort in their own but can’t seek understanding of those who have it “worse”.
K Russell,
Chattanooga, TN.
As a little white kid growing up, I was constantly harassed by black boys for no other reason than I was white- and small enough not to be a threat (I only weighed 89 lbs by eighth grade.) Luckily I had a great friend that was also black that saved me from quite a few bathroom poundings. I was told once in high school I would be killed by the end of the week. Two days later, as my dad was reading the paper, I saw my would-be assailant’s mugshot. Luckily, he got to someone else before me. I had a gun pulled on me in the hall one day, then the guy told me he was just kidding and walked off. My wife (who did not go to the same school) was molested by young black boys during middle school as she developed faster than other girls.
There is a paradigm in a very prominent subculture of the black community that says white people are bad simply because of the color of our skin. Whether it is stated outright or not, kids pick up on their parents’ sentiments and go to battle in schools across the country. Those of us faced with this model pushed on to young black kids growing up had it harder than most overcoming racism. Often, if not given ample opportunity to overcome it, unfortunately, many give in to the nonsense.
Until this paradigm is admitted and stopped in young kids, racism on both sides will only increase in an ugly and incredibly vicious cycle. With the strong and inciting rhetoric in the media today, I can only imagine the hatred being played out in elementary, middle and high schools today on both sides.
Neither I, nor my wife ever told our parents of the threats and harassment we received. Maybe we bought into the idea we were receiving what we deserved.
Sydney Arenas,
Denver, CO.
When I was growing up, the kids around me were punished for speaking Spanish in the classroom because the teachers assumed they were saying mean things about the other kids.
JMM,
Nashville, TN.
I’m white. 100% pale as can be white. I grew up as one of a small handful of white children in my elementary and middle school, and was relentlessly teased. White girl. Cracker. White b****. All names I was called. I had gum put in my hair. I was beaten up. I was bullied. I was threatened, and I was made to feel as less than a person because of my skin color. As if I were being punished for being a “white girl”. Never once have I received better than someone else because of my skin color. Never once have I been given something that I didn’t work for because I’m white. I’ve been made to feel almost ashamed to who I am because everyone thinks I get what I want because I’m a “white girl”. I won’t apologize for being white. No one should ever be made to feel as though they’re less than anyone else, and that includes people of ALL color. Even white.
Ricki Fowler
Bedford, VA
While growing up, I spent 5 years in a town hostile to outsiders. I’d always been unlike other children, but there, I was bullied by the kids at school and punished by the adults for being bullied. I’d been reading about the trials of African-Americans during the civil rights movement (then current events) since I was 8. In that place, I envied thos black people because they weren’t all alone in their persecution and it was only a stupid thing (their skin color) which made them unliked, not who they were as a person.
Vincent Remolete
Boston, MA
I had blacks and whites chasing me home after school. Anyone Asian was considered a chink or a jap in 50’s America. My father was a veteran of WWII. No respect.
Thuc Luong
Philadelphia, PA
I am Asian and when I was a kid about 6 years old I moved to the US, this is when I finally feel like a minority. People treated me wrongly calling me Chinese. I am not even Chinese. They would mock the Chinese language by saying ching-chong macha hay to me and I am not even Chinese. Who is so racist that they can’t even keep their mouth shut. It would get so mad that I would ignore everyone who is talking to me. It became a problem because it became a habit and it made it harder for me to listen to the teacher.
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