The Race Card Project
By Michele Norris
Daphne Revie,
Compound, NY.
Taking my daughter as a baby to libraries and play groups only nannies would talk to me assuming I too was a nanny because I have dark skin and my daughter is very light. The moms generally didn’t speak to me at all.
Samie
Hays, KS
I work at a university library. Our university is lucky enough to have students from all over the world. We are not so blessed in the fact that we are a rather conservative town. One comment that I hear over and over is “those Asians are ALWAYS in the library!”- as if that’s a bad thing! More students should lean from these students and spend more time in the library as opposed to the bars that populate the area. Also- if I lived on campus- as most of them do- and didn’t work in the library I would spend most of my time there- this is a boring town!
Amanda Rae,
Houghton, MI.
I go to college in a very predominantly white city at the northern tip of Michigan. Here the student population is massively more diverse than the town around it. There are few black people but many Chinese and Indian students. There are no rules separating the different groups but we see little mixing. Each area of the library, groups on campus, or even parts of buildings are common for separate races. Here there is less outward racism than the systematic. There is a complacency with the separation and an expectation for it.
Maureen C.
Kenosha, WI
I work in a library with a lot of African American patrons, and I tense up when black men come in, especially if there is a group of them together. I saw my father work harmoniously with his African American colleagues, have had many black friends, and still feel anxious when I have to interact with some African American men. It’s not rational, but it’s real.
Theresa
CA
I used to work in a public library. Sometimes, if people were too noisy, or were otherwise interfering with other people’s use of the facility, I would have to ask them nicely to stop what they were doing. Frequently, if the other person were non-white, I’d be told, “You’re just picking on me because I’m black.” As a white person, I DEMAND that blacks and other minorities not assume I’m a racist before I even open my mouth. Everybody needs correcting from time to time, and if you don’t listen when I tell you what you need to hear, you are never going to progress as a human being. Also, don’t be surprised if I am less welcoming to other blacks or minorities when they come along after you, either.
Everybody, black and white, loses in this situation.
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