The Race Card Project
By Michele Norris
Kitra Mwania,
Branson, MO.
The confederate flag clearly means something important to the people around here. Being a black person who learned that this flag represented slavery and injustice makes me nervous about why this flag is an accessory.
Keith F Thompson,
Brookline, NH.
Growing up as a white male in generally liberal surroundings, I assumed so much. I assumed I knew what racism looked like, and I assumed I would never witness it firsthand.Seeing the Oprah Winfrey Show do the Blue Eye/Brown Eye experiment on their audience was very revealng to me. Overt racism may be dying, but subtle, everyday slights have flooded into the vacuum
.
Then I moved from all-white New Hampshire to greater Los Angeles, and I saw minorities treated differently all the time. By police, by banks, by retail personnel, by landlords.
It’s not always about Confederate Flags and hoods. It’s about the pettiness required to denh even the smallest courtesy, to make the slightest accomodation.
As demonstrated by the Blue Eye/Brown Eye Experiment, minorities endure a thousand small cuts every day, with a general grace and strength. Subjected to the same slights, people used to privelage notice their abscence quickly and will not stand for it.
It’s not about demonizing people,it’s about asking everyone to be thoughtful, to be kind, and to consider others in our actions.
Sara Lachance,
Springdale, AR.
Seeing Confederate flags on the back of trucks and outside people’s houses makes my stomach hurt. I once encountered a person with the confederate flag on their sunglasses right between the lens, like it was staring me down. I am forced to be associated with those people because A. I am also white. and B. I am also from the South. The truth is, they represent hate and stall progress within America. It’s not a heritage thing, it’s a race thing and it’s discriminatory.
MKayla Nelson,
The University of Tennesse-Knoxville
Growing up in a small predominately white town in Appalachia, I was surrounded by confederate flags, derogatory terms, and racist comments hidden in “southern hospitality”. Recognizing my own white privilege and biases was not easy, and is a constant process of listening, learning, and changing. Now is the time for those in positions of power, institutions, and the privileged to speak up, educate each other, learn, and grow. It is time for the “hollers” of America to create a lasting change. Our “southern hospitality” should extend all races and not just those with lighter skin tones. I hope to see a day where “Ya’ll” means ALL.
Steve Morris,
Seattle, WA.
In the mid-1950s my father made a business trip from our home in Connecticut to Florida and back. He decided to make the trip by car, and to take my mother, my brother, and me along with him for a family travel experience. In the Deep South I witnessed undisguised segregation for the first time. I was 10 years old. At a gas station I asked the attendant why there were different bathrooms and drinking fountains. I told him my best friend in Connecticut was “a negro” (the terminology hadn’t changed yet). and I described how we did all the same things at school, and used all the same facilities. The attendant said, “Well that’s not the way we do it down here, sonny.” My parents, watching this exchange, sensed an edge — and perhaps a threat — to the man’s tone. They instructed me to address my questions to them in the future, and they bought me a little Confederate flag. I carried it everywhere, waving it around as I would have any other colorful souvenir. I was unaware of any meaning it might carry beyond its attractive surface. Years later my parents told me their side of the story, and explained that the flag was intended to smooth our journey through the South, and perhaps to provide a degree of safety. They had been more concerned than they let on, about the gas station attendant’s tone.
Becky Watts,
North Little Rock, AR.
I am an African American, and I am often told by White People when I can and can not be offended. This is extremely hurtful, because I am treated as if I am a 5 year old child who’s hyper imagination created racism. You can not tell me not to feel uncomfortable when I see the Confederate flag in someones lawn. I feel uncomfortable when I have to see a symbol that represents the enslavement and murder of people who look like me. I am offended when I over hear White students saying I was accepted in to their college because I am Black. Instead of telling me when I can be offended, why don’t you just listen.
Leighayn Green,
Nutrioso, AZ.
When I see the Confederate flag on something, I am wary and a little fearful of the person who put it there. My dad and his dad are from Texas. I remember my granddad exclaiming in awe and admiration a run Tony Dorsett made for the Dallas Cowboys back in the 70’s. He used the n-word in his exclamation. I was shocked. When I was 18, I asked my dad (who always maintained he was not racist) to stop telling racist jokes in my presence. He did. My mom was from Michigan and more socially liberal; however, she always cautioned against interracial marriage because of “how difficult it would be for the children.” I feel racism has grown or become more vocal and more acceptable in my community and in many parts of the United States since President Obama was elected under the guise of “free speech” and “I’m not racist, I just don’t like his policies.” Why would anyone in a rural, Mormon pioneer Arizona town feel an affinity for the Confederate flag? Yet, I see it on belt buckles and trucks of my high school students.
Daisy Martinez,
Holland, MI.
The Confederate flag does not represent and never has represented racism. It’s a symbol of the southern heritage, representing freedom, states rights, individual responsibility, and resistance to an out of control federal government.
It may be true that some racists have used the Confederate flag, but racists also wave the American flag. So another words the Confederate is NOT racist, us American’s also waved around a flag (the American flag) so why should us American say it is racist that they are waving around there flag when we are waving around our own flag. They have the right to wear and or wave around the Confederate flag it is up to the how they feel about it.
Ava Chamberlain,
Dayton, OH.
I don’t understand the phrase “heritage not hate.” It suggests the two are mutually exclusive categories. In reality, the heritage of the Confederate battle flag cannot be separated from a deeply entrenched hatred of people of color.
Mechanicsburg, PA.
Messiah College, Faculty.
Just look at race by census track. The “West Shore” is over 90% white pretty much all over the place, while the “East Shore” is much more diverse and white is the minority in Harrisburg. We lived in Lemoyne, right across the river from the city, and saw a Dixie/Confederate flag flying on a pole in a backyard less than a block from our house. As an adoptive father to two biracial kids, this was deeply unsettling. We are north of Gettysburg and the Mason-Dixon line, but at times it is hard to tell.
Tiffany,
Indianapolis, IN.
I was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. But I grew up in the middle class suburbs. My schools were overwhelmingly white. Black was something you saw on the news, heard about from others or saw on Marta. I grew up in a neighborhood where ding dong ditch was called N-word Knocking. I don’t even know why. I grew up reading Black Sambo and Uncle Remus stories. In high school there were a couple of black people amongst 4,000. They all “acted white” so we were comfortable with them. Districts were rezoned my sophomore year and we suddenly had 50-60 more black people who didn’t “act white”. Fights began to break out daily between the white (redneck, confederate flag toters) and the black kids from “the other side of the tracks”. I began to learn that black people were violent, loud, possibly dangerous. After high school, I would only interact with black people in downtown.
Sometimes as beggars accosting me for money, once as a man who picked my pocket. Between these few interactions and the media portrayal, it became clear that black men were something to fear.
When I was 21, I moved to Indiana. There’s less racial tension here. Definitely less racist talk. I’ve become a liberal, a feminist, a believer that we are all ultimately the same and that race is not what makes someone dangerous. I know now that I was seeing only part of the picture. I know I don’t have to explain to anyone here why my previous beliefs were wrong. I know, on a logical level, that black men are not dangerous… but I can’t let go of the reaction. I hate myself a little bit every time I have to fight the temptation to lock my car door when I see a black man walking down the street. I hate myself a little bit every time I’m afraid to walk on the sidewalk beside a black man. I hate myself a little bit every time I make any of these assumptions based on race. And I try to force myself to make eye contact and smile instead, to refuse to give in to my knee jerk reactions, but… I just wish the day would come that they would go away. I wish I truly could let go of my past and see people as just people, without having to force myself to do so.
Wayne K Robertson,
Decatur, GA.
That’s how we should think of it – a banner that intimidates.
Schung,
Philadelphia, PA.
Rick Schuch,
Bell Center, WI.
The confederate flag is bad and must be gotten rid of.
Nancy H Long
Springfield, IL
I drove through North Carolina over Memorial Day weekend last year and passed a house with its lawn covered in KKK crossed and Confederate flags. I wanted to stop and take a photo, but I was afraid someone would see and object. I actually feared for my life. It may have been an overreaction, but it came from my gut & was very real. How sad is this & just plain wrong! How long will it take to truly eliminate racism?
Liberty Boersen
Holland, MI
The confederate flag is basically a “punch in the face” to African Americans….
Courtney Potter,
Ann Arbor, MI.
Patrick
Ann Arbor, MI
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