The Race Card Project
By Michele Norris
Alimot Tinubu,
Houston, TX
I know that typically I would just be looked ta as another black girl, but I have deeper roots than that I am actually from Nigeria and so are my parents. It is hard to see the transparency through people when they look the same and you just assume things about them.
Kiersten Alling,
Corning, NY
Sociology class from Corning Community College
Eliyahu Hakohen,
Englewood, FL.
Being Hebrew is no picnic, everyone uses us for their scapegoat when needed. Jews have been blamed for all the madness including the black plague. Is that why we are the Chosen People ?
Le Hoang Nhat Vy,
Huntington Beach, CA
As an Asian American growing up, I have been continuously been called the looking same as my other Asian friends even though we are two completely different people regardless of what any people say. It really irritates me when that happens. I grew up in Vietnam for my first 10 years of life and not once have I encountered the stereotype of looking the same! Well, it was because Vietnamese or Asian in general is not the minority, we are in fact the majority. There were no such things as stereotyping me as a mathematical person because we were all mathematical people! But as soon as I step foot on the cultural melting pot known as the United States, I was constantly being stereotyped and made fun of (which is absurd to me). How does someone mistake me with a completely different person when the only things in common were our hair and skin color? East Asians have a higher genetic diversity than even the Oceanians and the Native Americans but I don’t go around mistaken Sam for William because they are not the same person!
There is a term that I learned in my Anthropology class called Differential Worth which means that races were ranked according to moral and intellectual standards that were based on the researcher’s population affiliation.
Many scientists have made sexists and racist conclusions just based on their research, for example, Pierre Paul Broca, who is a French anthropologist believed that males were smarter than females because he classified humans based on their brain size. However, as I expand my knowledge in Anthropology, I realized that Anthropology should only be focusing on the morphological differences between species and not focused on sex or race. I listened to a report by NPR where they reported that even though millennials are now accepting racial differences but there are some people who are mostly white, still grew up with different mindsets and experiences which is weird to me for some reason. I still believe that stereotyping should not be a thing anymore even if some are true, or at least stereotyping where the person is being insulted or put down upon. Anthropologists are out here focusing on the cranial vaults and morphological differences because of their curiosity not of racism nor sexism, they are sincerely just researching for the development of humans and I hope that we, as humans, can also advance to the point where we don’t prejudice categorization on certain races.
Erin Jones,
Lake Placid, NY
How many times have I known people (mostly fellow whites, but also blacks?) who can’t tell two people apart if they both have blonde hair. No matter how different they otherwise are in size age length of hair etc. Why is this? Is there any racial message in it? Is it different when a white person can’t tell me apart from my colleague who is 10 years older, or when a black person can’t tell me apart from the same colleague? It’s baffling.
Tu Nguyen,
Philadelphia, PA.
I am a 9th grader at central high school in Philadelphia. I wrote these words because I know that I’m not the only one who has heard them before. I am Vietnamese, but people often assume that I am in some way, Chinese. I notice that often then not, people tend to decide for themselves what someone is, instead of getting to know that person and actually learning what their ethnicity really is. It bothers me to know that people are judged based on stereotypes for example, Asians are said to have chink/small eyes, all Asians look identical, their IQ’s are higher than an average person who is not asian, they study nonstop and always get straight A’s, etc. These things are not true about Asians, every one is different in they own ways or else we would all be clones of each other. I also often hear the words “ching-chong” countless amounts of time. I don’t understand why, someone feels the need to say it to an Asian person, because not all Asians are Chinese and “ching-chong” isn’t a real word. Not only are they making a fool of themselves for saying this, but also they are making the other person feel low and unimportant. Try being in the other persons shoes and see how it feels to be insulted because you are different. The next time you meet an Asian person or anyone of a different ethnicity try to learn about them, instead of assuming that they are this or that or saying something that you saw online/tv because it may not be true and will hurt that person. Think twice about what you say.
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