Adopted daughter learns what “Yellow” means
Bonnie Jerome-D’Emilia,
Haddonfield, NJ.
These are my three children. We had never discussed the derogatory use of the word yellow to connote Asian, until we were forced to. My daughter was shocked.
Hispanic Or Not I Achieve Dreams
Odali Ayon Rodriguez,
Tucson, AZ.
Just a quick message: In our society of modern day times I am immensely judged for being Hispanic and a women. As children we are always encouraged to dream big and live towards those big dreams. However, as I grew older there were a lot of individuals (teachers, friends, family members, colleagues, etc.) that looked down upon me and tried to discourage my dreams, whether it was graduating high school, going to a university college, or anything in general. They discriminated me because of my race and economic situations in my personal life that they thought I wasn’t capable of getting higher onto a platform. There comment were derogatory and insulting that at times I would let it bring me down, however I was determined to prove a point and teach a lesson.
Race brings pride, but also shame.
Will Mortenson,
Minneapolis, MN.
I am proud of my roots and my family, but I often feel shame when I think about the wrongs that so many white men have committed. There are too many white men who have thought and still think in such derogatory and discriminatory ways that I simply don’t agree with. Those men who act on those feelings make me feel ashamed my racial connection to them, not to mention the anger I feel about the ways in which others are wrongly harmed by their actions.
Ginger? Sorry, I Don’t Speak Ignorance.
Azalea
Grand Rapids, MI
I’ve made fun of my entire life for my pale skin and red hair. It’s honestly really annoying and once the whole “ginger” thing is brought up I no longer want to talk to that person anymore because it represents their ignorance and the fact that they can’t just accept that I’m a redhead without using a derogatory name. I can imagine that’s so many people feel when an attribute about their person is different that the “norm” and it’s very unnecessary. Our differences make us distinctive and awesome.
You can be prejudiced, not racist
Chanel Tate
South Holland, IL
This is something my African-American mom would say to me all the time when I was a kid and I called her out on saying something derogatory or stereotypical about other races. She’s dead now and it’s harder and harder for me to remember the sound of her voice, much less the words she used to say.
This race card project brought up this memory, so I wanted to thank everyone for participating and putting it together. *tears*
What she meant by it was something I didn’t understand until I went to college, but I am still not sure I entirely agree with. She meant that as a historically and currently oppressed people, Blacks are incapable of truly being racist, because we lack White privilege and the power to really systemically affect other races and the infrastructure that keeps them down in society.
I’m not sure if she was telling me it was OK to be prejudiced, I think she was just correcting what she thought was my improper use of the word ‘racist’
