The Race Card Project
By Michele Norris
Jolynne,
Chino, CA.
If someone makes me nervous it’s usually because they’re different to me. Different than what I’ve been exposed to. It’s hard to emotionally stay with the difference regardless of what that difference is. The brave ones of us stay.
Mark Baron,
Hartsdale, NY
We’re all human. We should celebrate all of our diverse human cultures but never denigrate them. And while we’re at, how about eliminating the stereotypes.
John Howard Faultersack,
San Antonio, TX.
Everyone is prejudiced, but racists do it on purpose, and I’ve never understood why.
Thomas Ybarra,
Houston, TX
I am from Lonestar College. “Respect Racial Differences, Create One Family.” is a call for unity and equality when it comes to racial differences. Respecting individuals’ race and backgrounds is the path towards creating a global family.
Akira Uchimura,
Outside USA.
I was born in Costa Rica, raised in Paraguay, Ecuador, Bolivia, El Salvador, Suriname, Japan and Chile (3 to 4 years in each country). I didn’t notice any difference between my friends and I until the
“So where are you from”
“Do you have a foreign name too?” and
“Where did you grow up?”
started popping up a lot since I was 13. My sister was born in Paraguay and my brother in Bolivia. My father is Japanese and my mother is Chilean so imagine how I need to respond to these questions.
Normally I give a full explanation, which takes about 2 minutes and give a short one if I am tired, but I don’t mind because the person is asking out of curiosity and wants to learn more about me.
But I also notice that with questions like “do you have a foreign name too?”, people usually want to have a more exotic explanation of who they see in front of them. Depending on what I wear or how I act that day, I can be more Japanese or more “latino”, meaning that I can camouflage to a full “national” sometimes so when I start to speak, the person tries to look for that foreign part of me. During my teens, it was something that bothered me so much. I had found out that I am a foreigner wherever I went. I was a Latino or gaijin in Japan, and a “Chino” or “Japones” in Latin America, and a Hawaiian or Native American in the United States.
But after a while I also noticed that I had a choice. To see this difference as a negative thing, or to see it as a great potential to become the bridge between my two cultures. I chose se second one and feel very good every time I have to explain Japan to Latin Americans or American Latina to the Japanese.
Looking at this website and on so many half, double, mixed roots groups on facebook, I see that we are many now and the numbers will go higher and higher, until we all become beige regarding to skin color, but to understand cultures and ideas of “foreign lands” I think we are the ones that can best do it if we want to and am making this my life goal.
That is why we started an organization called Nikkei Youth Network and a crowdfunding site called Samuraidea, but that is another story.
Simone,
Canada.
I’m Asian-Canadian, and honestly, it’s kind of hard not to feel just plain alienated right now. It’s just gotten bad lately.
The level of xenophobia towards Chinese, or anyone assumed Chinese, is seriously tiring. It’s maybe the straw on the camel’s back here. It reminds me of my early childhood in Vancouver seeing stuff like “Chinese go home” graffiti etc.
If it’s not me- because I have a very decidedly Canadian accent and don’t even speak my native language- it’s targeted at people who look like me, the kinds of people who honestly have no difference from my ama, from my relatives, from my parents.
I’m becoming self-conscious when people go out of their way to avoid me when I’m out. I don’t think I’ve seen any fellow Asians without masks, most people who aren’t white tbh wear masks. I wear masks. But the focus is on my community all the same.
I don’t hate white people, and I know there’s a lot of amazing people. But saying I feel alienated is an understatement. There’s a serious feeling that I should just stick to my own and maybe eventually leave though Canada’s where I was raised since I was 2.
Kelsee Jensen,
Jonesboro, AR
I am from Alaska and have a lot of Alaskan native family members. Growing up, I did not think of myself as white. My family members told me that I was Athabaskan or Alaskan Native, but not white. When I moved to Missouri at the age of 8 I was told that I was, in fact, white. Either way, it makes no difference.
Jean M. Hebrard
Ann Arbor, MI
Understanding Race Project – University of Michigan
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.
Rachel Vaughn,
Durham, NH
Whether is race or diversity, we get to see the beauty of what makes us different.
Lauren C,
TX
I wish for my half white, half Mexican children to grow up knowing that perceived differences should be an opportunity to learn about another person or people, and how much they may truly have in common. An opportunity to embrace someone or their culture and traditions, and maybe learn something new about themselves.
Spike Fongchon,
Spokane, WA
Asians are just like other human beings with emotions just like others, what makes them different is skin color.
Eric Evans,
Tarboro, NC.
Our God-given differences are meant to be appreciated not to keep us separated. As a Native American man I live in a world that doesn’t know what to think of me outside of a reservation or the pages of a history book.
Rose Collins,
Syracuse, NY.
Highschool Student ’16
I believe that if we don’t appreciate our differences or acknowledge the fact that we are all different, then we will repeat the prejudice and pain we’ve seen in our past. We all have different stories and cultures, and if we don’t acknowledge that then we will be forced to see the unfair treatment of people from our world’s history repeated in the coming generation.
Irlena A. Rodriguez,
Tucson, AZ.
Mexican is not a race, and not all Latinos are Mexicans. We have different cultures and ethnicity across Latin America. I am Latina and I am Colombian, Not Mexican. there’s a big difference.
Mona Khadr,
Washington, DC.
“But where are you from, originally?” is a question I get a lot. When I was younger, I answered proudly (“Egyptian!”) because my heritage was something that made me unique from my mostly white-American peers in the suburbs of MD and PA. As I got older and entered high school, college, and the work force, things changed both in myself and in society. I was becoming more sensitive about this question and aware that some people had preconceived notions about Arabs because of what they saw either in 80s and 90s movies and TV shows, where Arabs were often portrayed as terrorists, or because of very unfortunate events in the news. And there didn’t seem to be any portrayals in the media or popular culture of “normal” Arabs to even things out. I started wondering about the best way to answer while retaining my right to privacy. I received advice from colleagues who were also either immigrants themselves or from immigrant families. Some advised me it was nobody’s business where you’re from and to keep it to yourself. These people basically promoted the idea of playing a game of chicken until the question-asker gets the hint and stops asking. But that can lead to awkwardness in a conversation if a person doesn’t “get the hint” to stop their line of questioning (as if you didn’t understand the question the first or second time), and I’m not a confrontational person by nature – so this would be uncomfortable for me. And I truly don’t believe that everyone who asks this question has bad intentions – most are just innocent and curious. I tend to evaluate on a case-by-case basis depending on the tone of the conversation, where it’s taking place, and the vibe I’m getting from the person asking questions. Sometimes it feels completely innocent, like someone in a store or a restaurant asking me where I’m from because they think I look like I was from their home country. And sometimes it feels completely inappropriate, like a colleague in the workplace asking the same question. (You’d think everyone would know that this question is illegal to ask in any workplace in the U.S., but they don’t!) Luckily I’ve never encountered a hostile person asking this question, and I’m not entirely sure what I would do in that situation. I still have no perfect way to handle this question, so I just try to take it one instance at a time. Wearing your difference or your uniqueness on the outside is a fact of life for many people (tall people; short people; people with physical disabilities; women in a male-dominated workplace/field; any minority in a majority-dominated situation), so I try my best to keep that in mind and take it in stride.
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