Diaspora Archives - The Race Card Project

We’re flawed. We’re perfect. We’re human.

November 27, 2023 Ashley Beighley, CA, Diaspora, difference, flawed, human, Jamestown, perfect, rainbow

Ashley Beighley,
Jamestown, CA

The warmth of the sun shines brightly through storm clouds, and the contrast produces rainbows. Similarly, the diversity of humanity makes our connection with others as beautiful as that separation of the white light spectrum, because seeing, and acknowledging, our differences, reflects the absolute perfection in our human diaspora.
Even when we encounter some people who are closed off to, or even antagonistic towards, the diversity of our modern, global, society, they, too, are a part of that beauty, by being a reminder of the colorless world we would live in if it was only possible to see ourselves by our flaws and not also by our perfection.

AfroLatin@s are not in the textbooks

April 11, 2023April 11, 2023 AfroLatin, Diaspora, MD, Omar Eaton-Martinez, Oxon Hill, textbook

Omar Eaton-Martinez,
Oxon Hill, MD

Afro Diaspora communities should have more dialogue and interactive engagement about blackness.

One Mirror With Many Different Reflections.

December 7, 2022December 7, 2022 African, anthropologist, Biologist, bloodline, CO, Colorado Springs, Diaspora, distinction, genetic, genetic trait, humankind, Keith R. Barnes, mirror, Native, physical, Pikes Peak Community College, pure, Race, reflection, skin color, social construct, superior

Keith R. Barnes,
Colorado Springs, CO.

I hear people talking about being a part of a pure race. Race is a distinction placed upon one’s physical and genetic traits most notably skin color. Race is a social construct created to make one category seemingly superior over another.
Biologists and anthropologists have discovered race mixing throughout the history of humankind. I have both an African and a Native American bloodline or diaspora (and maybe others). Therefore, what am I really – Black or Red? While I choose to identify as Black/African- American, I am really a mirror with many reflections.

So Chinese and For What Reason

June 7, 2022June 10, 2022 Asian, Chinese, Chinese-American, culture, Diaspora, High School, Mandarin, Marissa Ding

Marissa Ding

In high school, I was simultaneously comfortable with my Asian identity in my predominantly white surroundings, yet constantly questioning why I cared so much about being Chinese. I am fluent in Mandarin and comfortable in both Chinese and U.S. culture, but for some reason I couldn’t leave it at just that. I found myself getting increasingly frustrated with growing international tensions and the ignorance towards the Chinese diaspora I saw in the peers and adults around me as high school went on. None of the other Chinese-American kids I knew seemed to have this same struggle- why did I care so much?

Designed to divide, conquer, oppress us.

April 7, 2022April 7, 2022 Armenian, conquer, Diaspora, divide, Genocide, Madison, opress, Teale Greylord, WI

Teale Greylord,
Madison, WI

I am an Armenian-American descendent of genocide and diaspora, it’s like living in the gray areas of identity, race, and recognition. Never forget.

I am white but not Trumpy

June 27, 2021 1600, Acadian, Cajun, Diaspora, education, first experience, First nations, Gonzales, LA, Micmac, Ronnie Savoie, segregation, trump, white

Ronnie Savoie,
Gonzales, LA

I’m Cajun (Acadian diaspora settling in Louisiana) and have a tiny percentage of Micmac First Nations people from the 1600s. My maternal grandfather was pretty racist, but is my favorite person of all time, and who imparted to me my love of history, although he only had a fourth grade education. Towards the end of his life, my dad actually expressed remorse for ever supporting segregation when I was little. He said, “That’s the way I was taught it should be, and I really never gave it much thought. I never realized that it made black people’s lives really harder. When I think back on my life, I wish I’d never even spoken in favor of that stuff (segregation).” He was not a politician or anything. Just a pretty smart diesel mechanic who never had the opportunity for higher eductation, despite having the smarts for it.

Despite our “privilege”, we are killed.

June 7, 2021 Asian, CA, Diaspora, East Asian, Minority, PoC, privilege, Veronica Shao, white-adjacent

Veronica Shao,
CA

Asian Americans are often seen as more White than we are POC. This view erases the majority of the Asian-American diaspora, especially non East-Asians. Despite our somewhat “White-adjacent” status, we still have to confront racism and discrimination in our daily lives: something that has only become heightened during the COVID-19 Pandemic

MY FLUIDITY IN THE AFRICAN DIASPORA.

June 17, 2019June 17, 2019 African, Brooklyn, civil rights, Diaspora, fluidity, identity, New York City, Nigeria, NY, OTI OBOH

OTI OBOH
New York City, NY
Brooklyn

I’m Nigerian born raised in the US and find my fluidity in my identity as Nigerian, as American and as Nigerian-American flow in the different spaces I occupy. The Civil Rights allowed for more expansion of African people to occupy different parts in the world.

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