The Race Card Project
By Michele Norris
Ariel,
Spring, TX
When a lot of people think about single moms, they think of broken homes, and that we are minorities. Even stats show that more colored women tend to be single moms, but that doesn’t define us. I, myself am a 19 year old single mother, and I’m looked down upon, but I am so much more. I’m the light to my kids life, I’m a leader, I’m a sister, I’m smart, and I’m a child of God. I’m more than a single mom. -lonestar
Hayden Campbell,
Mesa, AZ
My name is Hayden Campbell. I am a white Christian male. To many people, that is all I am. I grew up in Mesa, Arizona. Attending a high school that is populated by a majority of white Christian’s. I was never standing out. I was always seen as another face among the crowd. For this reason, many people assume that I care little for others. Whether it is diversity through gender, race, religion, any criteria. While I do come from little diversity, my heart is still full for all people. I have spent countless efforts on global trips around the United States in effort to learn more about different cultures and backgrounds. I feel it is important to become out of your comfort zone of what you may know, to see what you can learn and how you can grow with others around you. While too many, I may just be another face among the majority, I hope that people will second guess themselves before judging a book by the cover. I encourage whoever is reading this to step out of your comfort zone, and learn about the many cultures that surround you.
London Romero,
Orangeburg, NY
I am a mother, wife, daughter, sister, granddaughter, aunt, niece, cousin, friend, professional, mentor, role model, but all they see is a brown person, less than, does not belong. I am born and raised in NY, but constantly people around me treat me as I don’t belong. I’ve always been questioned, and for all, no I’m not the hired help, yes this is my car/house, yes this white skinned red haired boy belongs to my dark Dominican husband and myself (brown skinned Puerto Rican women), yes both boys have the same father, yes I speak English and guess what Spanish too, do you speak two languages? I am a professional, I bought my own car, did not marry a white guy to have the things I have! My family is multicultural, multiracial, different religious upbringings, different sexual orientation, adoption, mental health, and we are all beautifully one big happy family. How many people can say that? Why must we look at someone and automatically place them in a category without speaking to them? People are so multidimensional and if you take the time to speak to someone you may realize how much in common you have. We are more alike than different.
Alejandra Boscan,
Trabuco Canyon, CA
I’ve always been seen as fully white when my culture and heritage is more than that. Coming from a mixed heritage of Italian, German, and Venezuelan, I want to keep all of these identities alive within me. However, I present fairly white, meaning that my Venezuelan culture is often lost. I love the rich culture of Venezuela and the people that I come from, and I want to be able to show this part of me to others. I hope that I can grow to express these different identities to show the world who I am.
Rylan A Brooks,
Mount Joy, PA
I have never been discriminated against in my life, based on my skin color and my gender. I have seen discrimination first hand on many occasions, once towards one of my best friends. The level of anger I felt was indescribable. I was raised in a household where everyone is equal, where no one person is better than another, and I greatly appreciate that. No one person should be faced with discrimination based on their skin color, based on what gender they assume, or their financial status. The fact that this is still rife in today’s society is completely unfathomable.
Kimberly Davenport,
Elizabethtown, KY.
Irregardless of our containment, the color of our skin, our heritage, our social structures…one element binds us all and that one element is that which cannot completely be embodied.. the human spirit.
I just ordered a dna test..so once and for all I can clarify to some degree what my exterior culminates into. Mostly my reason for this is because of once again having to fill out a form which asks the question regarding my race. I have hated that question since grade school when the first proficiency exams were doled out and the question was first asked of me. I remember how I struggled. I had just learned that very week , finally being of age to understand, that I was predominantly Cherokee/Native American Indian. I wanted to check the box but when I looked at my skin as directed by the teacher.. it was definitely white and my hair was blonde. The teacher said ” check white honey”. I checked white with disdain. I have checked white with disdain every encounter since. I am more than the color of my skin. We are ALL more than the color of our skin. Thank God we are more!
Josephine Kim,
Cambridge, MA.
When it comes to race, we need our eyes to hear and our ears to see.
Benjamin T.
USA.
I’m Asian, but I guess I’m pale or something because people sometimes find that hard to recognize, and when they do, they aren’t always respectful. Being Chinese and Japanese and also liking rice and anime pretty much makes me a stereotype, but that doesn’t give people the right to treat me differently.
Christina Cobos,
Amarillo, TX.
It is your soul, your heart, your empathy, and the way you choose to handle every moment of life that makes you who you are. You choose your impact. The odds were against me from the start. I had every excuse to surrender to failure. I broke the cycle, I rose up against my challenges, I refused to be defeated, and I became me.
Christina Veland,
Virginia Beach, VA
Throughout my entire life, I have heard the phrase “well, of course you’re good at that. You’re Asian!” But there is more to me than the color of my skin. Beneath the surface is a real person with real struggles. It is difficult explaining to my peers that it hurts to be so quickly stereotyped.
I wrote this six word memoir because I think a lot of people assume that I am just one race or ethnicity rather than someone who has ancestry in a lot of other places than just being white. I think that it is something a lot of people get wrong about me. I believe that you can be more than you appear to be both with appearances and where you come from. Stereotypes exist not just some races but for all of them, and I believe it is everybody’s job to break those and show people that not everyone is like that. I think a lot of people don’t just generalize with races but also with saying all people of one skin color are the same and the stereotypes that come with that, and I think doing that is just as wrong as stereotyping for only one ethnicity.\
Race is not scientific at all.
A lot of people have been taught from birth that race is a scientific phenomenon rather than a social one. However, research has shown that race is far from being a scientifically proven, and while race may be widely accepted as a social construct, not nearly as much effort has gone into actually proving it to exist outside of our culture and beliefs. ¨Races¨ are in no way completely separate groups as proven by analysis of DNA in a study conducted by the American Anthropological Association. The study “indicates that most physical variation, about 94%, lies within so-called racial groups. Conventional geographic “racial” groupings differ from one another only in about 6% of their genes.¨ This proves that there is no genetically defined line between races, but rather that everyone is different independent of what racial group they are put into, and as such there is no reason to have these extremely general groupings other than to have a reason to discriminate against groups of people. This study also proves that just because something is accepted socially does not mean that it is proven to be true. In conclusion, race is an extremely outdated concept that has no scientific backing, and is still used as a reason to discriminate against groups of people without any valid reasoning.
R.E.A.L. Talk,
High Tech Middle Media Arts,
7th Grade Trailblazer
I wrote this six word memoir because people should know that no one should assume someone else’s ethnicity. I also wrote this six word memoir because most people that I encounter think of my ´race´ and tend to assume what ´race´ I am and sometimes question me about it or ask me about my ethnicity. I haven’t experienced much racism in my life but I have seen some people say racist comments at school or on the internet. I think that some people are racist because they don’t know what they are talking about so they assume things that they think are true. It is everyone’s job to make sure that people know that stereotyping is wrong and it needs to stop.
´There is only one race, The human race´
Race is not scientifically real, it is a social construct. One of the first people to categorize people with ´race´ was Johann Friedrich Blumenbach in 1776. He was a German scientist who categorized people into five different groups by their physical appearance, by where they were born, and their lifestyle.The five categories he put people into were Caucasian, Mongolian, Malayan, Ethiopian, And American.The American Anthropological Association says that during the 19th century people were put into a hierarchy and sorted people into categories by their ethnicity and were given different ranks on the hierarchy by their physical traits. This evidence shows that race is not real and that it is a man made idea. This proves that race is a manmade concept used to discriminate people and put them into groups. In conclusion, race is a completely wrong concept that has no scientific evidence of being real.
USA.
I am an artist
I am a reader
I am a writer
I am a friend
I am a sister
I am a daughter
I am more than my race.
Richmond Heights, OH.
I am more than African American. I am tired of being passed over for positions that I more than qualified to hold. I am tired of working twice as hard to prove my worth when my white counterparts who are less qualified laugh.
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