desire Archives - The Race Card Project

Tribalism is more divisive than race.

June 2, 2021June 2, 2021 Accept, Charlottesville, church, community, culture, desire, disruptive, divide, divisive, Elias Jones, families, law enforcement, misconceptions, political parties, Race, separatist, tone, tribalism, tribe, VA

Elias Jones,
Charlottesville, VA.

It is tribalism that leads to assumptions both affirming (they are like me, they accept me, I am safe with them) and disruptive (they don’t like us, we don’t trust them, they are different). Tribalism perpetuates white privilege, empowers classism – which is informed and compounded by racism and sexism – collectively absolves abuse, fosters narrow concepts of community, amplifies distrust and fear, fuels separatist desire, and validates misconceptions. Too often, empathy ends at the tribal boundary. One reason those who choose bias over acceptance rebuke science is because modern science no longer categorizes humans by race, but by ethnic groups. Race is concept too easily institutionalized to enforce classist agendas. Ethnicity is closer in tone to cultural specificity. Consider the existence of tribes and how they might reinforce perceptions and attitudes toward race; law enforcement, political parties, families, neighborhoods, churches, hobbyists, etc. If your tribe insists on attributing all characteristics (positive and negative) to race, how likely is it that you will too? Unless you choose not to.

Trouble is, maybe I’m a racist.

October 5, 2020October 5, 2020 desire, Matthew Hartter, Racist, Seattle, superiority, trouble, uselessness, WA

Matthew Hartter,
Seattle, WA.

The feeling of uselessness leads to a desire for superiority.

Different skin, same desire for equality.

September 18, 2020September 18, 2020 Allison Greenfield, Bloomington, desire, different, equality, IL, skin

Allison Greenfield,
Bloomington, IL.

Our global motivations are innately similar.

May 6, 2019May 6, 2019 change, desire, driven, equal, global, Middletown, Monmouth University, motivation, NJ, reality, similar, survival, Tiffany Wysocki, travel, truth, USA

Tiffany Wysocki,
Middletown, NJ.
Monmouth University

As I travel the world, I have found one truth: we are all innately equal in our drives and desires. We are driven by love and survival. We want the best for our families. We want to feel loved and have the opportunity to love. That’s it. That is the place we start. Not from our differences, but what makes us the same. The human condition is more powerful than our facades. If we can start from our collective human similarities, we collaborate and we win. If we start conversations and interactions with what makes us different and “other,” we judge…and lose before we begin. Change perceptions and you change reality.

Embrace both change and your person

March 5, 2018 American, CA, change, Chinese, desire, East Asian, embrace, goals, liberal, Los Altos, Michael Chin, parents, person, societal values

Michael Chin,
Los Altos, CA.

I am personally grateful for both the East Asian cultural values passed down to me by my Chinese parents, as well as the diversity and liberal way of thinking hardwired into me during my time growing up in the Bay Area, as both aspects of my background have contributed equally to molding my identity as a Chinese American. My parents, drawing from their own experiences, instilled in me the importance of hard work in achieving my goals, as well as giving me the competitive desire to always perform better than all my peers both within and outside of the classroom. On the other hand, American societal values helped to ensure that these ravenous desires to crush all opposition did not result in me becoming completely self-centered and withdrawn, instead encouraging me to embrace the ideas of other individuals from a variety of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds and heavily nurturing the ability to be creative, something that I once believed I was never fit to truly attain.