images Archives - The Race Card Project

I’m Diane. I’m Alaskan, and Black.

January 30, 2024January 30, 2024 AK, Alaskan, Arctic Circle, Black, black faces, Denali National Park, Diane, Fairbanksm, images, natives

Diane,
Fairbanksm, AK.

Images of Alaska never show Black faces, but yet in Fairbanks, the state’s second largest city, the Black population is equal to that of Alaska Natives. We have been effectively erased from our own history and present day lives. I work with tourists and a day doesn’t go by when I don’t have an interaction with one or more who are startled, not in a nice way, to find Black folks here. And despite living a day trip to both the Arctic Circle and the Denali National Park – home to the highest mountain in North America – few of my people have gone to either, firmly convinced that those places are somehow only for white folks. None of this is right. None of this is fair. And all of it is worth fighting against.

Black youth obligated to be intimidating

May 1, 2018May 1, 2018 Black, Brent Hixson, Des Moines, IA, image, images, intimidating, Latino, Trayvon Martin, youths

Brent Hixson
Des Moines, IA

Why is our culture so tied up in image? For a young Black or Latino to walk into a store with hood down and face fully exposed is perceived as weak. Actions must always portray power, in charge and make others around them uncomfortable and then ask the question why are you so suspicious of me, racist?