The Race Card Project
By Michele Norris
Avanti Iyer,
Chevy Chase, MD.
I’m tired of not been seen as having the same rights as white people (especially after 9/11). I had to pay hundreds of dollars in fees and take a test to become a citizen of the US. I am curious how many native-born white people have the equivalent civics, history and geographic knowledge of this country that they seem to take for granted.
Barney Rush,
Chevy Chase, MD.
Ours is an adopted family: my wife and I have two daughters, both of whom are Caucasian, as we are. We adopted them through agencies, the older when we lived in New York; the younger when we lived in Florida. After living six years in Europe, we returned to the United States in 2002, when our daughters were 14 and 8 years old. We had always told them that they were adopted, and so grew up never considering this fact to be a secret, or something that made them materially different from their friends, and certainly not something of which they might be ashamed. So it wasn’t surprising that our younger daughter, now in 5th grade at our local elementary school, would mention to her new friends that she was adopted. What surprised her was that her friends were surprised, and disbelieving. Hence her request to me when she brought a friend home after school. Why the disbelief? It wasn’t because her friends were unaware, or uncomfortable with adoption. To the contrary: there were plenty of adopted children in the school. What was different, I think, is that most of these adopted children were Asian or from Central America. So the idea that a child could be adopted who was Caucasian – THAT didn’t compute. And perhaps there was a deeper thought: “You look just like me; how could your “real” Mom have given you up?” I wonder about that; but I don’t know.
Elya,
Chevy Chase, MD.
I grew up very privileged, and when I realized that I was being bullied by my white peers because of race, my parents decided that I would no longer be sheltered because of my race. I became very active in my student activism group and because I am mixed, I was never really accepted by the black kids. I don’t pass as white, so I was not accepted by the white kids. I have learned that self love is more important than trying to fit in with your perceived race. My friends are Jewish, Ethiopian, Chinese, Norwegian, Jamaican and so much more.
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