The Race Card Project
By Michele Norris
Sunny G. Sampson,
Albuquerque, NM.
I managed to obtain one degree, still paying for it. Have attempted two other degrees. The debt and the education happened, but the piece of paper eluded me. In one case because of direct racism, accused of cheating because I had a 3.6GPA. In both, economic difficulties did me in. The result I am the most education person I know working for 13 dollars an hour.
Alberta Jones,
Juneau, AK.
Alaska Natives and American Indians are often just an asterisk (*) in higher education and other data. We are collectively, trying to build our critical masses and be a voice that is often unheard.
Rebecca Montgomery,
San Marcos, TX
As a white American history professor who specializes in race and gender analysis, I think that white Americans can’t really “get” what the problem is unless they know the history of race, racism, and the black experience. I know I didn’t until I studied black history in grad school. And now my state is trying to outlaw the teaching of black history, heavy sigh.
Fred Rocha,
Huntington Beach, CA
Those are the words my parents were told by their counselors in Los Angeles high schools back in the 1940s. All they wanted to do was pursue their interest in Engineering. Instead they were told to go work in the fields. They took the anger they felt and made it their mission to push their children to maximize every educational opportunity given us and reach out with our Mexican hands to lift others up.
#Educause2018
Adam Jones,
Chaska, MN.
I am a para in a special education class, and the high school in which I work is very diverse. The longer I work in this field, the more I have come to see that kids are kids. People are people. I am frustrated, elated, encouraged, concerned, and inspired by all of them, irrespective of their race. But what I appreciate most is that THEY taught me to see them this way, because so many of them see the world this way themselves. There is hope, and it lies in time and the future generations to come.
D’Lauren Oxidine,
Delray Beach, FL.
As a future doctor of education, one would assume that success would be highly attainable. However, because of my age, gender and race my level of success is different from my older male and female counterparts of different races. Knowing this means treating my entire doctoral experience as an unofficial 3 year interview where achieving anything less than a level of excellence can be detrimental to a career that I have yet to pursue.
Rhiannon Emma Farr,
Minneapolis, MN
I haven’t lived a great life, nor a terrible one. I suffer depression and anxiety and other mental illnesses and physical ones too that make everyday living extremely difficult. Though my life has been tough, I acknowledge that my race or gender has nothing to do with the pain I deal with. Education is political and can alter humanity. I am fortunate I have learned about my privilege and what I use it for to help underrepresented communities without speaking for them.
Daisha Taylor
Cleveland, OH
Every time an African American graduates is another way we prove society wrong. But it is another future persued and created.
Rose Mary Prifest,
Wayne State,
Harper Woods, MI
If there is anything important I learned in my lifetime, it’s acceptance of peoples’ differences. The key is education. It is opening your mind and heart to learning what makes people who they are. We may not agree with how they worship, whom they love, and how they celebrate, but we should always respect their existence and their human right to be themselves.
Michele Boivin,
Buckeye, AZ.
Education is power.
Desiree,
Chesapeake, VA.
When I was growing up in the 70’s and 80’s I use to hear about black people are the most uneducated race, and have the highest drop outs rates. In my family neither mother or father side have education. If anyone is educated there are distant family members. Therefore growing up the children did what they saw the parents do, except when I quit school because I had kids early, I decided to return, and obtain my GED, and life goes on from there, as I continued to seek education through out my life, and even now at 45 still engaging in an learning environment in spite of life challenges along the way. I have refused to live life uneducated and be a statistic.
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.
Radhika Guruju
Chandler, AZ
Education is what helped us get to this country and therefore for most Asian Indian families it still remains the top goal for their children, and education at a Ivy league school is what the focus is on starting as early as 7th grade. Study hard and develop a work ethic that comes with it. If you look around during the graduation season you will notice the top performers in most high schools in the nation are from Asian families, it is not because they talented, it is only because of focus of the family on education.
Larry Smith (Vietnam Veteran),
Saint Louis, MO.
I look around and see white fear of black people (especially black men) on the rise as reflected in the rise of white gun possession. I also see things staying the same or getting worse for black people in terms of economics, education and housing. I would just like to live out my remaining years in an environment where I feel like a human being. 66 years of this crap is enough for me!!
Cynthia Waszak Geary,
Baltimore, MD.
I grew up in Durham, NC and attended Hillside High School as part of the first court ordered desegregation plan to achieve racial balance. I am heart broken that since that time there has been a steady and deliberate re-segregation of schools in the US. I am hoping for leadership at local, state and federal levels to find ways to reverse this and create greater racial equity in education.
Chris Smith,
Submitted via Twitter: @burning_wind
@michele_norris
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