categories Archives - The Race Card Project

Less fighting, more talking about it!

February 6, 2017February 6, 2017 Ancestors, biological, categories, define, ethnicity, fighting, Germany, history, Homosapiens, Huffington Post, Michael Yudell, Prussia, social construct, talking, traid

I have not experienced racism. It’s as flat as that. My whole family are nice people and I have not been exposed to racism. However, I do know quite a bit about it. From the history of how racism came to be to the people who changed it for better and worse. My ethnicity is German because I was born in America and my family has lived here their whole lives too. A long time ago my ancestors came from Prussia, Germany. I enjoy studying other cultures and they are all fascinating. I love to travel and go to new places like Mexico, to learn the language, surf, and simply be immersed in their culture. I used to think that each person can be put into a category and can be defined as a person by where they come from. In reality that is not true and who you REALLY are is defined by what you are in the inside.

Race Is Not Real!

“Race is not a biological trait” says Michael Yudell, co-author of the Huffington Post and associate professor and chair of community health and prevention. It is in fact just a social construct created by people to separate others. If you look at just a person’s DNA you will not see anything that determines their race. This is because we are all the same species, (Homosapiens), and we all have slight differences that makes ourselves unique because of where we live and our choices. And in fact, we are NOT completely different people. This is because the differences we have are less than 6% and that is determined by the places we live in because of the conditions there. And also, our own choices, for example, how you choose to work out that one day and now you have more muscle and less fat. The fact is people should not be defined by ‘race,’ and instead by who they are as a person. So, why is this important you ask? Well, because race is social construct that society has built and puts people into categories and in turn this sprouts racism, and leads to a decline in our society. Don’t YOU think that’s important?

“You don’t know me, no judging”

February 1, 2017 Africans, American, American Indian, bad influence, biological, border, born here, Brown Sugar, caramel, categories, criminal, define, illegal, judge, label, legall, names, science, skin color

As a kid, people call me brown sugar, or caramel, and think of me as a kid who crossed the border with her family illegally, because of my skin color. My family was always poor and had jobs that didn’t always keep roofs over our heads. We always ran or hid from the police and people judged us for that. Thinking that we were criminals. People would ask where I was born, and when I answered America, They would make a fuss of how I didn’t look white. This offended me because it made me think that I didn’t belong here and made me that I was a criminal and illegal like every other Mexican, according to them. They found a way to convince me that I shouldn’t play with their kids because I was or am a bad influence. Somehow, the police found out my parents were illegal and deported them back to Mexico for not having papers. Someway I will make these people know that not all Mexicans are criminals and aren’t illegal and a bad influence. I was born here and am legal. Not everybody born in The U.S.A is white. They are also colored, Asian, and like me: A Mexican. Although, we can help stop racism, by choosing right from wrong.

Race ain’t real, We are all the same

Race isn’t biologically real because people invented it to put other people in categories. Like the American Indians and Africans. They were put as slaves because they were a different colors than the Europeans. People back then believed that race was real. But today biological races don’t exist at all. The reason is because there is nothing in science or biology that proves that race actually defines who we are. Everybody is the same race. Nobody is different. Since we cannot point to something real that separates people of different races, we mustn’t look at race as a culturally defined label or something that puts people in categories.

You think I’m Black. I’m not.

July 2, 2013July 2, 2013 Black, CA, categories, colored, negro, Omari N.F., Race, Santa Barbara

Omari N.F.
Santa Barbara, CA

Race is something we made up and nothing good has come of it (valiant struggles to overcome its many ills notwithstanding). 20 years ago I’d have been called Negro, 40 years ago ‘Colored’ and today Black. Truth is I am none of the above. There’s only one race, human. My problem with race is all the connotations and baggage that comes with it. If I’m Black I’m ‘supposed’ to talk a certain way. For many people, Black is synonymous with poor, ghetto, dangerous. Again, I’m none of the above. Just as we’ve evolved so it’s no longer appropriate to call me a nigger, someday it will no longer be okay to call me Black. If you want to know what I look like or where my ancestors were from, I’ll gladly tell you I’m a person of African decent. But let’s move away from these loaded, sloppy, insidious categories we call race.