CA Archives - The Race Card Project

Emily, Perris, CA. I have NEVER been so proud to be a Filipino-American. My culture is my everything and I would not trade it for the world. Being the handful of Asians at my school makes me even more unique. I want to promote diversity, I want people to be okay with the color of […]

See me, not my skin color.

Refugio Zavala, Stockton, CA. All throughout my life, people have judged me by the color of my skin. When I was in the United States, people would call me things like “beaner” and “wetback.” These are racial slurs meant to humiliate and make me ashamed of my culture. So what that I liked to eat […]

No. I’m not your average face.

Clara Chun, Los Angeles, CA. I’m a Thai-Chinese, Korean, White girl. It’s about as confusing as it sounds, but I refuse to not acknowledge a single part of my identity. Because all of it exists.

Biracial White/Asian Travels to Southern States

Sean B., Riverside, CA. I am half white and half Filipino. Growing up in a melting pot such as Southern California has been awesome. I never truly understood how lucky I was to live here until I traveled to the south (multiple states) to visit family. My wife is Filipina (born in the south). While […]

You’re not one of THOSE Asians.

Linn Won Cook, Irvine, CA. I guess that’s a compliment?

We’re one people on one planet.

Jedd Birkner, Torrance, CA. Race is a social construct. Prejudice is a way of expressing ignorance and fear. Senseless hatred is passed from generation to generation. I pray that the people in my country with hatred in their hearts for those they perceive as “the other” become a smaller and smaller minority with each generation. […]

“Good Morning!” But there’s no response.

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Clyde Jasper Oakland, CA I’m a tall black man with dreadlocks. I’m a husband and a father. I’m a property owner, and a taxpayer. I’m a veteran. I vote. I graduated Phi Beta Kappa from a world class university in Berkeley, CA. In passing, I many times acknowledge a white persons presence and humanity with […]

Are you sure you are Hispanic?

Olivia Rose Castillo, Sanger, CA. I am constantly asked if I’m sure of the racial group I belong to because the color of my skin. I am light complected, I’m a lot lighter then most. Doesn’t mean I should be defined by my skin color. All of my are similar in our faces but all […]

Pale freckled redhead burned by words

Marie Farrell, Brooklyn, NY. I grew up in San Diego, California where the sun shines all the time. I was the kid that never tanned, just freckled and burned. I was also raised by an Irish mother so there was a lot less love than fights and tension. I recall a day when I bravely […]

Empowered Latina recovering from self hate

Natalia Lopez, Los Angeles, CA. Growing up in East LA and being told I was one of the “good children”, I played into the identity that I was and will always be an exception to my peoples inferiority. Striving to be more like the white girls I saw on television made me feel like I […]

Mexican hands are for farm labor.

Fred Rocha, Huntington Beach, CA Those are the words my parents were told by their counselors in Los Angeles high schools back in the 1940s. All they wanted to do was pursue their interest in Engineering. Instead they were told to go work in the fields. They took the anger they felt and made it […]

Our daughters look like both of us

Heather, CA My husband and I have two beautiful daughters. Both of our girls have white skin, light brown hair, and brown eyes. When looking at them, others would assume they are white. My husband is Filipino/Italian and has dark skin, black hair, and brown eyes. I am white with blond hair and blue eyes. […]

You’re foreign. Not American. No way.

Franke Santos, Los Angeles, CA. Despite being born in the U.S., speaking only English, and being given a white-sounding name, I am routinely asked “where are you from?” When I respond, “Los Angeles,” I get the follow-up “where are you really from?”

Wow! you don’t have any kids?

Yira Pineda, Anaheim, CA I am told that it is surprising that at my age, gender and Hispanic culture I do not have any children yet. I hear that by the age of 15 it is common for Hispanic girls to become pregnant and quit school but that was not my stereotypical. I am 27 […]

The Pinoy Debate: Asian? Pacific Islander?

Vince Domingo, Fresno, CA. I’m proud to be Filipino. And I’m also proud to be an Asian Filipino. No, not a “Pacific Islander Filipino”, whenever you see them, avoid them as much as you can, they’re terrible people. They hate puppies. Okay, okay, I jest. They are just misunderstood. This is not even a geographical […]

I feel like I’m being replaced.

Rusty Shackleford, Sacramento, CA. I’ve always been surrounded by diversity and never had any issues with it, or even noticed it. Growing up in a diverse area my best friends were Sikhs, Mexicans, Chinese, etc. As I became older and more aware of the world at large, I knew what diversity was, but it felt […]

I am not one for boxes.

Denise Duvernay, Cupertino, CA. People are always trying to figure out exactly, what I am. But does learning my nationality, ethnicity, religion, sexual background, or any other particular thing tell you anything about WHO I AM? So often, I feel like people are just looking for any excuse to dismiss you, or box you into […]

Stereotypes: “Wake-up Everybody!”: Analyze Your Thinking

Mark Ross, California, CA. These issues are complex. Stereotypes (or action using information from stereotype) are based often enough on at least some modicum of reality (authentic or perceived). The wrong view As an African-American male, I have been unduly perceived as a threat. That suspicion has been acted upon several times by government authority, […]

Underneath we are all just bones

Nicole Gillespie, Campbell, CA We shouldn’t compare each other

Yes, I was born in Detroit.

Amanda Nelski, Los Angeles, CA. People like to put other people in boxes. “Where are you really from?” they ask. I used to answer Detroit. When they asked where my parents are from, Detroit was not suitable either. “You don’t look like you’re from Detroit.” After some banter I would eventually confess my lineage is […]

Asian-American stories are rarely told.

Timothy Leong, Orinda, CA. I want to change that. Representation in American media spaces need to change in order to combat the stigma that comes with the model minority myth. Also to show the world that we are all different and vary from stereotypes.

Soul Surfer is Light without color

NanJo Carter, Richmond, CA. I grew up in the fifties and sixties. We moved to Japan when I was 2. We moved to Montgomery, AL when I was six and I attended Capitol Heights Elementary School. These were intense times with the National Guard escorting us to class and the school. We experienced discrimination and […]

Mexican-American, But No Hablo Espanol

Vincent Yanez, Long Beach, CA. For as long as I remember my mother, and myself as I got older, was given a very hard time from people in our neighborhood and some family members about my little sister, little brother, and I not being able to speak Spanish. My mother and father both grew up […]

Love rises above fear every time.

Angela Grant, Roseville, CA. The only thing that’s real is Love. Everything else is an illusion.

Still figuring out my six words.

Rob Moore, Oak Park, IL. I was raised in Southern California, born into a military family. I’ve lived most of my life in a white–or beige–bubble. Recently, because of an important and loving relationship, I’ve been thinking a lot more about race as it affects us today. Reading Claudia Rankine, Patricia Smith, many others who […]

Same DNA but born this way

Lily, Lake Forest, CA. Currently taking Biological Anthropology and am finding it both fascinating and eye-opening. My six words are an excerpt from Lady Gaga’s song “Born This Way”. It probably looks corny or, perhaps, cliché but I did put some thought into it! When I had first heard those lyrics, I had to research […]

I thought your house would be big

Michelle Robillard, Lake Forest, CA. I’ve never lived in a “house.” It’s always been an apartment or condo, never had my own room except when I was young and my sister wasn’t born yet. I am white and used to be blonde and people assumed I lived well. Quite the opposite. My parents try their […]

Threatened because was the white girl.

Laura C, San Ramon, CA During high school at ROP I was attacked and threatened as was my a boy friends for being “the white girl” getting too good grades and throwing off the grade curve. In college “black women” would approach me the quarter I dated a black guy and threaten to beat me […]

Discrimination is circumstantial. Hate is substantial.

Jeff, Los Angeles, CA Giving non-whites permission to be hateful is holding them to a lower moral standard, and that’s just yet another racist condescension.

Why steal when you’re already looking.

Michael Swanegan, Chino Hilla, CA. Im a 22 year old African American male who lives in California. Whenever I enter a store, gas station, or even a movie theater. I feel an unwanted vibe as if I’m on the radar by all the managers and floor workers. A negative vibe as if I’m being looked […]

My identity isn’t up for debate.

Lora M. McManus, Altadena, CA. Plain and simple. No ifs, ands, or buts. “What if you just haven’t met the right guy?” No. “And where are you really from?” No. “But you’re a woman…” No.

I am the token black girl

Chinna Ford, Vallejo, CA. It’s hard work being the token. You must learn to lighten the mood with an acceptable race joke every so often. When slavery is mentioned in classrooms you must ignore the peering eyes of your classmates. You must, sing, dance and excel at sports because in the words of my white […]

To be young, gifted, and black.

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Maynard Hearns, Santa Cruz, CA. The black story in america is very simple: we were slaves, and then we weren’t. We were never given freedom, or equality. When we begged for it, we were lied to. When we Marched on Washington and pleaded our case, we were shot in the back of the head. When […]

Uniquely Made, The American Girl Today

Christina Rains, Riverside, CA. French, Indian, Mexican, Dutch, but American? It is quite clear that you cannot judge individuals by their color. Race in reality just identifies where your family has lived and what part of the world you are from. Throughout my life, I have been called “white girl” but in reality, this categorization […]

I Won’t do your Math homework.

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, […]

Yes!! My name means White in spanish!!

Blanca Soto, Hemet, CA. I grew up in a community that was composed of mostly white people. Every time someone would ask my name they would go on to say doesn’t that mean white? Yes! I would reply. Mostly likely laughs would follow and the oh so unique question of “why would your parents name […]

I will birth a bi-racial baby

Lindsey Hollister, CA My dad is one of 9 children and the only to procreate within our race. This seems to mean that I am expected to do the same. Little do they know, I have been secretly engaged for two years and am now expecting…

I thought you were a “hoodrat”

Cierra Garza, Parlier, CA. When I first moved to my new high school 15 minutes away from my hometown, I had no friends. I am now a senior in high school. I’ve met new people and made friends but, one thing that always comes up when someone is comfortable with me is the phrase, “I […]

As a Bi-coaster, race is terrain

Mary, Oakland, CA. Wherever I am living in this country also affects my racial/cultural identity.

Texican and Kansan adopt beautiful Chinita.

Sandy Mayer, Los Angeles, CA. I was surprised that our daughter’s Guatemalan foster family lovingly called her Chinita but understand that this is accepted in some Latino cultures. Growing up in a bi-cultural household, my sisters and I were called “cosas de la vida” by my Mexican mother. My husband and I are determined to […]

No, I won’t do your homework

Dillon Pham, CA. As a person who enjoys volunteering and helping others, I typically don’t mind if my friends or fellow classmates ask me for help on their homework. Sometimes however, they ask me to send a picture of my homework because they don’t “get it.” This irritates me because one, I feel like I […]

Grew Up Black. Now part Mexican.

Michelle Y. Bess, Chicago, IL. My mom is from California, my dad is from NYC. They raised my 4 siblings and me in Washington State. We grew up identifying as black. Recently, on a trip home, my mom learned that our family moved from Mexico to California on a covered wagon to begin a new […]

Soo, what are you?

Christian Sandoval, Los Angeles, CA. I’m half Asian half Caucasian, but people always mistake me for other races and I honestly don’t have a problem with it. I think people are genuinely just curious for the most part. I grew up in South America for a large part of my life and when I moved […]

Human- does anything else really matter?

Kerri, Riverside, CA. I’m a Hispanic/English woman that was raised very, very Italian. It wasn’t until a few years ago I learned I was Hispanic and not even slightly Italian. CBU HIS31

In the end we are human

Chase Sponseller, Riverside, CA.

Don’t see racism where it is not

Anonymous, San Francisco, CA. I am so grateful for increased awareness about racism in our society (it certainly still exists and we should continue to focus on efforts to achieve equality) but I am also concerned about suggestions of racism (with ensuring public outrage) in cases that do not seem to involve racism at all. […]

Diversity is central to my identity

Sabiha Viswanathan, Menlo Park, CA. Race is beauty. I could not imagine my life without diversity. Learning about different cultures has fostered my love of people.

We’re all different, but the same

Alexis Houck, Lake Elsinore, CA. We may be different colors or ethnicities, but we are all human beings and no one should be judged or thought of any differently based on their differences.

Does being ‘white’ make me racist?

Tara, Rancho Cucamonga, CA. Don’t assume a persons position simply because of what their ancestors choices were. CBU HIS311

I’m A Human, Not A Fruit

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Gabrielle Guzman San Diego, CA Yes, I am Mexican. Yes, I know I apparently hold the same facial features as someone who would be considered Asian. No, I did not just cross the border. No, I do not speak Spanish, although I can understand it fluently and am taking classes to learn it. I am […]

You may not know you’re racist.

Taylor Hirano, Irvine, CA. Growing up in a mostly Caucasian community, many of my fellow peers didn’t know they were racist against me. It could come from backhanded compliments like “You’re so pretty for an Asian”, to minor comments such as “My sisters boyfriend is Asian, you probably know him”. Whenever I said anything they […]

Two worlds, where do I belong?

Manuel Catalan, Lompoc, CA. Being a Mexican American always makes me think about how race affects everyone. I was born in the United States but my family comes from Mexico, although I look like I could’ve been born in Mexico myself. I serve in the U.S Marine Corps and I get to experience and meet […]

Race will always matter in America

Ashley, Aliso Viejo, CA.

Χιος to Hughes…we’re all immigrants

Patricia Hughes, Lake Arrowhead, CA. My father’s father took the long route of immigration from Greece during the political upheavals occurring in the early part of the 20th century, and later sent for his family. My father and some of his siblings were born in America. Growing up extremely poor in Denver, Colorado, my father […]

Why won’t we just turn colorblind?

Julia Wright, Irvine, CA.

Not a thing. Just geography + time.

Odile Sullivan-Tarazi, Redwood City, CA. Of course, culturally it has been made a thing, and a thing which privileges some and penalizes others. We need to fix this.

Married, male, 65, grey, overweight, invisible.

Terry Campbell Concord, CA How amazing it’s been to pass from the viability of youth to become the unseen senior. It’s hard to comprehend as we were the generation that would never grow old.

White Baby Boomer Low Wage Slave.

Skyler Crane Oceanside, CA There is a small splash of African in my ancestry, never talked about, though obvious in physical traits of many of my relatives, Why I give my Race Card sentence is that born a baby boomer to low, very low, middle class WASP parents, i was not given or alerted to […]

Who’s directing? It’s HER? No Way!!

Lorna Green, Altadenam, CA. I am an independent filmmaker, a writer-director, African American, and a woman. This combination confuses some people; it makes no sense to them because most directors are white guys. Granted, I selected a profession that relegates me to invisibility, but what’s interesting is the day-to-day reality of this. Working with new […]

Our hearts are the same, right?

Steven Scogna, Sacramento, CA.

Let me walk in your shoes

Renee Poselski, Riverside, CA. So Cal – Atlanta – Hawaii – Russia: No matter where I have lived, my heart yearns to connect and understand. Writing this, I am hesitating because I don’t want you to think that I can’t understand because I am white. My whiteness is a wall between you and me. I […]

Told to see race, am puzzled

Jeff Marks, Mountain View, CA. I have been hearing about the importance of “seeing race” a lot lately. What does this mean for my life? It can’t mean I should TRY to categorize people, should it? I often meet people that don’t easily fit in a standard racial category. For me, I will take it […]

So ‘Ratchet’ is the NEW Black?

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Cyerra Hawkins Riverside, CA I’m a African American female and I am irritated behind the fact that people associate African american women as loud and verbose. people are people we all have different personalities and ways of expressing ourselves. Stop with the categorizing and that is for any race or ethnicity. Vicious stereotypes have been […]

GUYS, NOT ALL ASIANS ARE CHINESE

Stephen, San Jose, CA. I see lots of news that some Asians are considered to be Chinese when they do wrong and insulted by other race people. But, NOT ALL ASIANS ARE CHINESE.

Race is just accident of birth

Saygo Nino, Sunnyvale, CA. Don’t be proud of something you didn’t achieve. It is just whom your ancestors spread their legs for.

Race is color, color isn’t you

Alejandra Vargas, San Jose, CA.

I’m one of the good ones

Abraham Sanchez, Palo Alto, CA. Just cause I don’t act the same as other Mexicans does not define my moral value. You don’t say that to someone who looks like you right?

Race has no finish line winners

Laura Flores, Hayward, CA.

Racism; as American as apple pie

Malcolm Harris Jarvis, San Diego, CA. Unfortunately, the apple does not fall far from the tree leading, in many cases, to generations of racists. Racism in any of its myriad, ugly and self crippling forms will always be deeply entrenched and ensnared in the soul of countries and their citizens unless we have the unthinkable, […]

Just call me a human being

Lily Campbell, San Francisco, CA. I am a Freshman in Highschool, and for the past month, my religious studies teacher has been teaching us what the meaning of race is. Race is a category that humans have created to tell each other apart from one another, but we are all apart of one race, the […]

Mexican boy didn’t cross the border.

Jordan, American Canyon, CA.

America provides opportunity for English accent

Andrew, Irvine, CA. Love America and as an immigrant British CEO recognize the opportunity afforded by this forward thinking multi cultural environment that is SoCal

Half Kraut, half Jap: lotta KRAP.

Karl Koessel Blue Lake, CA German-descent St, Louis raised 16-year-old volunteers for war. Japan surrenders while he’s in boot camp. Sent as occupational soldier, but really doing puberty. Comes to Berkeley in 1951 with new wife for school and I am first of 7 children to come. Growing up in mixed neighborhood where groups appeared […]

“Tom’s best weapon was his smile” Ray Bradbury.

Jim Moore, San Jose, CA.

Thin line between pride and chauvinism.

Thomas San Francisco, CA

Speak Spanish Poorly? Then Don’t Speak.

Robb Pérez, San Clemente, CA. My mother didn’t speak Spanish to us when we were growing up in the Bronx, but I took enough Spanish in school to develop a decent accent. By now, however, I have what could be considered a six-year-old child’s vocabulary. Hence, it’s easier to tell people that I don’t speak […]

Daughters of Muslim father are American.

Suzie Husami, San Diego, CA. My mother and father met in college in upstate New York – he, a Lebanese -Muslim-Republican named Muhammad and she, an American non-practicing Methodist-Democrat named Maureen. They fell in love and had three daughters – Najla, our olive-skinned sister, and my twin sister and me – pale and freckled. My […]

Never met Grandfather because “Bull” Did

Andrea James Andrews Fresno, CA Our personal family legend includes Bull Connor from Alabama. My grandfather was diagnosed as Schizophrenic but that didn’t stop Bull Conner from killing him either before or right after they took him to the Colored Hospital for the Insane. Have an irrational hate for anything “Alabama” since then (born and […]

Who is your daughter’s father?

Itoko Richardson, Daly City, CA. I am Japanese and my husband is Black (he extremely dislikes to be called African-American). Our experience alone was interesting and filled with many racist, stereotype encounters and reactions. But my experience with my daughter is interesting. When I and my daughter are out, I can feel strangers’ wonder of […]

You speak Spanish??? You look white.

Anonymous, Perris, CA. I have green eyes, blonde hair, and light skin so I must be white, but wait.. I speak Spanish. I am Mexican American.

Don’t judge book by its cover!

Leon Robert, Riverside, CA. I identify as black but often times get mistaken for a white person over the phone. When people have come into my work to see me, I’ve heard comments like, “Oh, I though you were white”. My usual response is, “Interesting. What does a white person sound like?” The responses are […]

Guide To Your Privilege Right

Z Frohna, Los Angeles, CA. So. I’m a white woman who lives in L.A. But I’m also disabled, and a part of the LGBT+ community. Am I privileged? Yes. If someone has privilege, whether it is the dreaded white privilege or economically fueled privilege, it doesn’t mean, “they are a terrible person,” or, “their life […]

Mexican parents, American kids, broken home.

Jameson Magdaleno Sacramento, CA This is my personal observation as a Mexican American regarding the plight of families with illegal immigrant parents who have children born in the U.S. today and their struggle to stay united. – Jameson Magdaleno

Half-white, half-middle-eastern. Where do I belong?

Aimiee Gauvreau, Redondo Beach, CA. I’m almost 47 now; I felt more alone as a child and teenager of the 70s and 80s. I teach high school English in a beautiful California beach community, and the kids are more open now, yet I see how the aloneness persists within them too. Maybe in another 50 […]

Love everyone, trust few, hurt nobody.

Fess Makame Justice, Oakland, CA. This is a quote by Shakespeare who helped organize the Bible.

America’s Legacy of Racial Terrorism Endures

Shirley, Glendale, CA. I find it heartbreaking and appalling when we have the likes of Bill O’Reilly and those in the conservative right say that say “All Lives Matter.” To me, that is as oppressive and violent as Jim Crow Laws. From a Latina feminist perspective, Black Live Do Matter as long as Black African […]

Being Asian, my Authenticity is Questioned

Colette, Sacramento, CA. “I love Asian girls” “I love Japanese people” “Konnichiwa” “Ni hao” “Sayonara” “Kamsammida” ‘Your a bad Japanese. You don’t know Japanese.’ “Are you Chinese?” “I don’t think people in Osaka speak Kansaiben” “I know Chinese” “You look the most Japanese” “You could be an other Asian too” One Caucasian man approached my […]

You don’t know what racism’s like

Matthew Thomas, Brea, CA. My opinion often is viewed as less online because I’m white and “haven’t experienced racism” isn’t that racism itself?

Ever had sex in the backseat?

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 […]

Everyone deserves toleration, every single person

Kyla J., Scotts Valley, CA. Everyone deserves to be tolerated, no matter your skin color, language, or family.

White Supremacy dies; Mexican Supremacy thrives.

Norman L Fletcher, Fresno, CA. It’s just a matter of time.

Race is nonsense. We are humanity.

Mark A Tyler, Perris, CA. As an astronomer I see the Earth as a speck of life in a sea of emptiness. If we never learn to work to better all of us we will never survive the trials ahead.

Wik na tiki wawa bastən wawa

M.H. Culley, CA. It is sad that my Indian Elders and Ancestors were taught to be so ashamed of being Indian that they tried to protect their descendents by not teaching us their songs and language. This is even more painful because in the 20th century out tribe was declared extinct by a white bureaucrat […]

Use privilege to give a voice to others

Isabelle Norconk, San Diego, CA. As a white woman, I don’t experience the struggle and discrimination that other men and women of minority groups feel. That’s not to say I have no problems, they just don’t have to do with systemic racism and racial stereotypes. Something I can do to combat this and to add […]

Indian American South Asian Desi American

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Jacob Kuriakose, San Diego, CA. I would like to bring up the idea of “Indian” to label Native Americans, Pakistanis, Sri Lankans, Bangladeshis, etc. I would also like to talk about lumping East Asians, South Asians, and South East Asians into the general term “Asian” as well.

Changing the path of my children!!

Tina Bradford, Chino Hills, CA. Being raised in a home where “White is Right,” I only had one thing I could do. So I went on my own path of development. Creating myself into the black sheep of the family. Why would I do such a thing? So my children could learn we do not […]

Homeless. White. Unusual. Gave him money.

T.C. Green, Los Angeles, CA.

Samoan/Jewish – aka The Last Unicorn