IL Archives - The Race Card Project

In a Class of My Own

June 1, 2026June 1, 2026 adversity, African American, black skin, Chicago, class, half-human, hlaf-demon, IL, InuYasha, Marcus Garcia, Mexican, mix, pretend, Spanish

Marcus Garcia,
Chicago, IL

I chose these words that have been plucked straight out of InuYasha. If you aren’t familiar, InuYasha is about a half-demon who goes through much adversity and is often ridiculed for being both half-demon and half-human. During one fight, he yells out these words and proves himself as a worthy opponent against his full-demon enemy. I myself am a mix of Mexican and African American without really retaining the traits of falling into one group or the other so to speak. There’s something fascinating to me about someone who doesn’t fit in anywhere but finds solace in carving his own path that is deviant from either group. As much as I would love to learn Spanish, the few times I’ve tried to speak it has been ripped to shreds by someone who has spoken it since they were a kid while I was not. As much as I would love to pretend my skin is black, it still resembles a side of me I couldn’t fully connect to anyway. Yet I see both of these cultures as their own thing while I’m neither, and still find something to admire about both.

A Southern Belle? No. Korean husband.

June 1, 2026June 5, 2026 Chicago, heritage, husband, IL, Korean, Leah Lee, married, Southern Belle, surname

Leah Lee (now Leah Durst-Lee),
Chicago, IL.

Keeping cultural heritage is very important to me, so when I married my husband, Sihyun Lee, I wanted our kids to have a Korean surname. Our first year and a half of marriage, I took my husband’s name and became ‘Leah Lee.’ It was awful! Almost everyone I introduced myself to stifled a laugh and proceeded to ask me something about the American South. My mom is a Californian and I am from Iowa, so naturally I couldn’t speak to anything ‘Southern.’ Once people grew to know me more, many insisted on a nickname of ‘LeahLee’ slurred together in a Southern drawl. Needless to say, I recently hyphenated my name and haven’t received a single new Southern belle quip.

Our boys died for your kind

June 1, 2026June 1, 2026 Asian, Bloomington, Chinese, Deborah Halperin, first experience, Hapa, HI, I, IL, Korean, Vietamese

Deborah Halperin,
Bloomington, IL

A man said this to me while we were in line at the post office. I was 18 and had just moved from Hawaii to Iowa for college. I am part Chinese and Filipino. I look Asian. He must have thought I was Vietnamese? Korean? I was caught off guard. I said nothing. No one ever said anything like that to me. In Hawaii we all look “hapa” but not on the mainland.

Immigrant to America equals sacrificing generations.

May 11, 2026May 11, 2026 america, Chicago, dad, generations, IL, immigrant, mom, mom and dad, sacrafice, Tom Lau

Tom Lau,
Chicago, IL.

This is a Polaroid of the back of my mom and dad that I took few years ago.

Grew Up Black. Now part Mexican.

May 11, 2026May 11, 2026 CA, Chicago, covered wagon, Georgetown Diversity & Inclusion Management Certification Class, grew-up black, identify, IL, Mexican, Mexico, Michelle Y. Bess, mom, NYC

Michelle Y. Bess,
Chicago, IL.

My mom is from California, my dad is from NYC. They raised my 4 siblings and me in Washington State. We grew up identifying as black. Recently, on a trip home, my mom learned that our family moved from Mexico to California on a covered wagon to begin a new life.

White credit card, no credit limit.

October 13, 2025 Chicago, credit card, credit limit, IL, Joseph

Joseph,
Chicago, IL

Spit towards my feet on train.

September 11, 2025September 11, 2025 9/11, Azeem Raheem, Chicago, IL, spit, train

Azeem Raheem
Chicago, IL

Happened about a week after 9/11 as I was headed home from school on a Chicago train.

Resilient Latina dedicated to thrive

June 12, 2025 Adriana Lopez, IL, latina, resilient, Rock Island

Adriana Lopez,
Rock Island, IL

Not something I consider very often.

May 13, 2025May 13, 2025 Chicago, IL, Peter G

Peter G,
Chicago, IL

Luckily I look White, not Latina

January 28, 2025January 28, 2025 Daphne Lathrop, IL, latina, look white, Palatine

Daphne Lathrop,
Palatine, IL

“No nickname please, it’s not hard”

January 23, 2025January 23, 2025 Aurora, DMACC, IL, Janiya Moore, name, say my name

Janiya Moore,
Aurora, IL

I chose these 6 words because so often many people outside of my race find it difficult to say my 6 letter name, Janiya, (Jah-ny-uh), and many will respond in the face of giving up on pronouncing with “ugh or ooh, it’s so hard can I just call you Jay, or Niya, etc”. And if I can pronounce 6+ letter names with ease and practice such as Savannah, then so can others.

I’m so proud to be Hispanic

October 8, 2024October 8, 2024 Hispanic, IL, Mia Gomez, North Chicago, proud

Mia Gomez,
North Chicago, IL

Age 5 They don’t serve Mexicans

August 15, 2024 Chicago, dinner, Don, don't serve, first experience, food, IL, Mario Lopez, Mexican, Mexico, police, racism, restaurant, Texas, TX

Mario Lopez,
Chicago, IL

Our family was on vacation on the way to visit family in Mexico and we went to some restaurant in Texas and after sitting unattended for almost an hour, my dad tells me “we’re going to have to go.” I asked him “Why?” and he tells me “they don’t serve Mexicans here.” Again I asked “but why? “We have money to pay don’t we?” my Dad says “of course we do.” I persisted “so why can’t they serve us, we’re not asking for anything for free?” He responds, “they just don’t serve Mexicans.” For many years I could not understand why a business would willingly lose out on making money by refusing to serve someone because of who they were.

Ni de aquí, ni de allá

August 9, 2024August 9, 2024 Ana Rodríguez, anglos, Antioch, aqui, both, exhausting, food, IL, Mexican-American, not from here, Oprah, Salena, Sinatra, Wayne State

Ana Rodríguez,
Wayne State,
Antioch, IL

Selena’s dad explained it best in his monologue where he talks about how tough it is to be Mexican-American. He goes on to explain that, “Anglos jump all over you if you don’t speak English perfectly and Mexicans jump all over you if you don’t speak Spanish perfectly…We have to be twice as perfect as anyone else…We have to know about John Wayne and Pedro Infante…We have to know about Frank Sinatra AND Agustin Lara…We have to know about Oprah AND Cristina…Anglo food is too bland and yet we go to Mexico and we get the runs…Japanese-Americans, Italian-Americans, German-Americans, their homeland is on the other side of the ocean…OURS is right next door. Right over there…And we gotta prove the Americans how American we are… And we gotta prove to the Mexicans how Mexican we are… We gotta be more American than the Americans and more Mexican than the Mexicans…BOTH at the same time! Its EXHAUSTING!”

We assumed their father was black!

August 9, 2024August 9, 2024 assume, Black, Family, father, IL, Melissa Weir, real parents, Trout Valley, white

Melissa Weir,
Trout Valley, IL.

We like to think that we are like every other family, whatever that means. But questions like “are those your real kids” or “what happened to their real parents” make that impossible. Nonetheless we are a close, joyful, and fortunate family.

White kids without shoes, white privilege

June 3, 2024 barefoot, black children, Champaign-Urbana, children, crunchy, IL, Kate Maguire, kids, no shoes, privilege, same, socioeconomic

Kate Maguire,
Champaign-Urbana, IL

There is a parenting trend happening now towards “natural” childrearing which conjures up for me a picture of young kids frolicking barefoot in the grass, with grass and dirt-stained knees, perhaps not even completely dressed and fully enjoying the outdoors as nature intended. I live in a higher socioeconomic, predominantly white neighborhood in my city, and as a white mom with small children regularly encounter this parenting philosophy. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with it, I can’t help but always wonder that this parenting trend is not open to people of color. A white parent with a dirt caked, shoeless child running through the neighborhood is given the benefit of the doubt as “natural” or “crunchy”. A black parent would more readily be labeled a neglectful or bad parent, and that could have dire consequences for their family. This doesn’t seem fair to me at all. I have thought is over and over again since becoming a mom, and this is the first place I have ever voiced it.

Thankful mom embraced non-white cultures too.

May 12, 2024May 12, 2024 Adrianne Tomkinson, asian neighborhood, Aurora, black neighborhood, brown neighborhood, culture, first experience, IL, mom, neighbor, non-white, poor

Adrianne Tomkinson,
Aurora, IL

I am white. I am female. I grew up poor with black, brown, white and yellow neighbors. I loved and felt loved by them all. I wish everyone grew up with that opportunity.

Too white to be Native American

May 12, 2024May 12, 2024 brown eyes, Cherokee, Chicago, green eyes, IL, italian, light skin, mom, Native American, Simone, stereotype, too white

Simone,
Chicago, IL.

A lot of people say I look too white to be Native American. It’s tiring that my mom is full Cherokee while my dad was full blown Italian, all my other bothers came out darker than me and had brown eyes, I am the only girl int he family. As far as having light skin, but tan in the summer, dark hair with green eyes. I tell people that i am mixed but seem not to believe based on soley the skin color. To me skin color doesn’t matter on a base of streotyping people, but that’s what you get on people who choose to live inside the box rather than out.

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