Athena Scavo, Hornell, NY. I often get this question due to my name being of the Greek mythology background. Often, people assume that I am not Greek, but my parents liked the name or thought I was going to be tough or had some reason why I was named Athena. If you look at me, […]
Jose M Moreira, Brooklyn, NY. What I mean to say is, I am afraid that one person that has the concept of robbing, stabbing and killing me can snuff my life out probably slower than someone that is suppose to ‘protect and serve me’ might just take said life so much more quickly and amazingly […]
Victoria Polera, NY. Being white doesn’t make my life any easier. I still have a really difficult life without putting my race into perspective. Looking at a person as an individual rather than placing an individual into a social group is mostly important. It’s unbelievably more important to look at the individual separately rather than […]
Elizabeth Lorde-Rollins, MD, MSc, New York City, NY. Manhattan. Collected from The Race Card Project, On Location: The Brooklyn Museum My grandmother came from Grenada in 1926 and got a job at the Waldorf-Astoria cleaning because she was light enough to pass for white. My grandfather had no work until WWII broke out (he was […]
Danny McCabe, New York, NY.
Yochanan Kushnir New York City, NY Manhattan The answer is drowned in silence and pain.
Jani Lee New York City, NY I accept what African American friends/co-workers say, I would like to answer, “But it wasn’t me.” I listen, feel and absorb their pain in an attempt to try and make things right.
Laura Brengel Clifton Park, NY This is something a “friend” said to me as we dropped the kids off at her house so we could go out to dinner.
Ardean Orr, Syracuse, NY. All four of my grandparents immigrated from Italy, so I’m pure Italian, but also white. My father was a jazz musician who often played with musicians who happened to be black, so I grew up in a tolerant home when it wasn’t popular. Growing up in America it seemed like blacks […]
Karen Jericho, NY Racial discrimination towards asians is unfair. We deserve the same treatment in the media, politics, and college application process. It makes me wish I was black.
Edvige Kromayer Barrie, Clinton, NY. Growing up in the ’50s, I was unaware that most people had no idea how to pronounce my name and were therefore reluctant to call on me in class or say hi to me on the playground. At the beginning of kindergarten, one kid even asked if I was a […]
Stacey Wicksall, Macedon, NY. Those who have traditionally been able to oppress others also are the same group able to lift others from oppression. The power to transform is in this group’s control. Will the group choose to oppress and suppress? Or will they instead decide to progress by elevating and empowering? The lives of […]
Ruby Marlowe, Brooklyn, NY. Italian-Irish mom, Puerto Rican-Mestizo dad, never met dad’s family as his side was pretty bad along with dad who was never around. Me and my little brother look and act “Caucasian” (laughing at the now PC whites who treated us like crap in the 80s and now identify us with people […]
Karen S Camara, New York City, NY.
Ollie, New York, NY. I’m mixed – white and Iraqi. It infuriates me that people, of all races, can’t see past my light skin. My Iraqi side is also Jewish and the racism within, and anti-semitism outside, has made claiming a poc identity an uphill battle. I feel like half of me is being systematically […]
Amber, New York, NY. I had an interesting experience at a Family Health Center today. I was experiencing trouble at home with applying for health care online and sought help finishing the application with a woman named Carmen who specializes in enrolling people. She said my ethnicity was in question and that it was affecting […]
Josclynne Grier, New York, NY. Sadly, he meant it as a compliment. It wasn’t.
Jay Tee, New York, NY. Seeing as many careers have been derailed, some high profile other less so, because of a hypersensitivity around candidly discussing race, the nation is going to have tough road ahead. “Oppression olympics”, wherein arguments are weight in proportion to the professed suffering of the speaker, fueled by the mob power […]
Reynolds Tenazas-Norman New York City, NY Brooklyn I realized that art was a major part of the political story and it was uplifting.
Kressel Housman Monsey, NY My biggest aspiration at age eighteen was to get into a good college, but once I got there, all I found was one big drugged out meat market. After two disastrous relationships, I dropped out and began exploring my Jewish roots. I found that contrary to popular belief, Orthodox Judaism honors […]
Kylie Schell, Carthage, NY. We all are the same inside, fat, skinny, black, brown, white or purple. Lets start seeing people for their inside, not their outside. Ugly is ugly, regardless of facade!
Scott Kraenzlein, The New York City, NY. Born to a (white) Canadian mother and a (black) African father in Canada I was adopted at birth by a white couple who divorced when I was 2. My mother married my stepfather, a German national, when I was 7 and we moved to Germany. I spent my […]
Erica, Syracuse, NY. Monmouth University
Alexandra Garcia, Long Island, NY. My father emigrated from Spain in 1974, and we have been raised to be proud of our Spanish heritage and culture. In school, whenever I told people I was Spanish, they assumed I meant Mexican or Colombian or Puerto Rican. I’ve always been annoyed by that, because no one knows […]
Deanna Getty, Islip, NY. Monmouth University
Keryann Ladouceur, Elmont, NY. Monmouth University
Stacy N Knight New York City, NY Brooklyn The “civil rights movement” has not ended nor has the history eluded my development- It is my current reality. I vividly remember the first time I was called a ni**** at age 5 and the most recent experience of being called “black devil” at age 28.
Roland, New York, NY. Be who you are, not what someone else wants you to be.
Linda Kuriloff, New York, NY. I once had an interview for a job at a company where the owner was Orthodox. I realized when he shook my hand that he was battling with his conscience because he probably expected that I was Jewish.
Kristia Molina New York City, NY Brooklyn I sacrifice a lot for my family because we are going through a tough time
Richard Perez Bay Shore, NY The conservative backlash surrounding the Coke commercial featuring the song “America the Beautiful” speaks volumes about how far the right has to go in matters of race/religion/gender and anything else non white male.
Kate, NY.
Logan, Garden City, NY.
Michelle, Rochester, NY.
MaryBeth, Rochester, NY. I am white. I never experienced or witnessed prejudice until I went out to eat with my black friends. On several occasions, we were seated in undesirable locations within a restaurant and ignored. I thought it was just BAD customer service, until pointed out by my friends who said it was a […]
Sharon Murphy, Rochester, NY.
JT Robertson, Brockport, NY. Your color should never dictate who you are on the inside. Be yourself, free of stereotypes and the societal rules that govern us all. Just be you, because that’s the greatest thing you can do.
James E Washington, Rochester, NY. The ego thrives on identification and separation. We seems to be a nation that thrives on dualism, having an “other” a “they or them” as a means to distinguish ourselves from. White, Black; Rich, Poor: Republican, Democrat; Christian, Jewish; Fat, Skinny; on and on. The problem appears to be “ego […]
Amy New York City, NY Brooklyn The power of everyday people to stand up and not take racism, sexism, anti-semetism, homophobia as okay. We must fight and always speak out. We cannot be silent, even when it seems like the hatred is focussed on “others” because we are all humans and one person being put […]
Karen Bernod, Brooklyn, NY. Fear and ignorance drives HATE. The World continues to change becoming more diverse. CHANGE is always good. LOVE conquers ALL!!!
Reginald Lane, Rochester, NY.
Maria Posato, Webster, NY.
Brian Washington, New York, NY. White guilt has not, will not, and is not useful in the mission to eliminate racial stratification. It’s a shame it took me so long to realize this. Everyone has the right to be proud of who they are. Being proud of being an in-power majority is not unfair. It […]
Barbara Fought, Jamesville, NY. Faculty The most impacting cultural experience for me related to race was when in the 20s I lived in Detroit, a majority-black city.
Nicholas Pasquarella, Webster, NY.
Caleb McGuire, Rochester, NY.
Sunil Yapa, New York, NY. I’m biracial and grew up in rural Pennsylvania. The question where are you from has always hounded and haunted me. I’m from the US. I’m from Sri Lanka. The only two places in the world where they are certain I don’t belong.
Michelle, Rochester, NY. My liberal white colleagues have long conversations about the problems with racism in American. They have interesting ideas about solutions to the problem, but they rarely listen to the brown people in the room. Is this a white savior problem?
Jose Reyes New York, NY
Bob d West Chester, PA It happened in the summer of ’68. I was alone at a concert at the city stadium in Glen Cove, NY. There was chanting, black kids -some of them friends from school- surrounded me and I was beaten unconscious. It wasn’t personal. Dr. King had been murdered, it was summertime, […]
Jarae Farrell, Poughkeepsie, NY. My father is West Indian and my mother is black. I grew up in a very diverse town in the northeast, so when I was younger I knew there were people who looked different than me, but race wasn’t really a thing for me until I was in high school. Even […]
Kristiana Weseloh, Brooklyn, NY.
Kelly B. Ferrell Sterling, VA As the child of nomadic parents, we lived where we could and/or where my parents found work. At one point in the mid “70s, we lived in up-state NY, outside of Ithaca. We were the only black family in the area (in the county the way I remember it) and […]
Liliana Estevez, Bayshore, NY.
Danny Mantooth, Syracuse, NY.
Danixa Carr Brooklyn, NY I am Panamanian and Puerto Rican. My mom is Afro-Panamanian (her roots are mixed as well) and my dad is mestizo. Growing up, I’ve always identified with my Panamanian side and considered myself to be Latina. However, I had one life altering experience in Panama. I traveled to Panama in 2010 […]
Danielle Rosati, Hauppauge, NY. I am tired of being blamed for blacks feeling not good enough. If you feel a certain way it’s within yourself. And only you can change that. I’ve been pulled over for no reason !! Arrested .. I have felonies .. I’ve been hit and beaten by cops!! You want equal […]
Michael Ponsler, Brooklyn, NY. I’ve enjoyed an extremely diverse social life, dated & married interracially and on countless occasions have been the only white person within a crowd, community or family gathering. I have never been harassed, harmed or threatened by a person of another race. However, I have been rejected, assaulted and/or threatened several […]
Joel McCall, New York, NY.
Brad Crump, Floral Park, NY. As a Presbyterian Pastor I serve a diverse congregation (Guyanese, Jamaican, Black, White). As a teacher I work for a Middle School in Springfield Gardens (97% non white). While I spend every day serving the diverse cornucopia of NYC I am seen by many as the problem, the privilege, the […]
IYANU MILLER-TAHIR New York City, NY IF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT WAS NOT THERE I MIGHT NOT BE A FREE CHILD. I MIGHT HAVE TO GO TO AN ALL BLACK SCHOOL FOR SIXTH GRADE. I AM VERY THANKFULL FOR THE MOVEMENT BECAUSE I WOULD HAVE HAD TO FACE SEGRAGATION AND THE CAREUL UNFAIRNESS THAT I […]
Chris G Murray New York City, NY Manhattan As an activist in the 60’s/70’s and having had our share of victories, I continue the fight for liberty, freedom and doing what is morally right. All people must live together and combine their strengths to fight against the multi-national corporations
Pamyla C, Staten Island, NY.
Anonymous, Syracuse, NY.
Nicholas Perez, Floral Park, NY.
Theresa Heary, Berne, NY.
Lee, Queens, NY. I live in NYC. A melting pot no? I am one of the few people where I work who is white American. I have a lot of experience but there are people there that have more experience than me and are better then me. I make at a minimum $15 more per […]
Karmyn, New York, NY.
Cassandra Krummel Seaford, NY Being a white girl brought up in New York was difficult. I went to school where many of the students were black and to them, I was a spoiled white girl. Coming to college and joining a sorority never helped the situation. Every time I am confronted by a black person, […]
Richard Roberts New York, NY
Dave Mowers Brooklyn, NY I live inbetween black and white neighbors, my boss is a Phillipino woman, I shop and eat in black and white owned stores and restaurants in my neighborhood. Orthodox Jews sign my paycheck. I teach students from around the world. My boyfriend grew up in a small town in Texas in […]
Isabel Cristina Dominguez Dobbs Ferry, NY I love this project! It is so insightful- there are so many things to say about one’s self… I am going with the one that faces me everyday in my work place… but I could write so many others!
Todd Schoepflin Buffalo, NY Racial inequality, racism, race relations…it’s all so hard for Americans (us, the U.S.) to handle. Some try, some try harder than others, some work so hard against racism and do the vital work of raising awareness and making change. But it feels like an overwhelming challenge sometimes, and I am saddened […]
Amaya, NY. Collected from The Race Card Project, On Location: The Brooklyn Museum
Chenelle Nixon, New York City, NY. Queens. Collected from The Race Card Project, On Location: The Brooklyn Museum What is a race when no one is winning? Race should not define superiority but a majority of human spirit reaching the finish line of equality, freedom, abandonment of self-hate and persecution the color of ones skin.
Jill Damatac, Brooklyn, NY.
Anonymous NY The worst part is that people believe me.
Massiel Ramos, Bronx, NY. Sometimes your race depends on the people and culture you associate yourself with. If that’s the case, I’ll never fit into one solid category.
Colette, Poughkeepsie, NY. As I was getting ready to upload my own statement about race, I noticed a posting that stated “(B)lacks are a one dimensional thinking bunch” who participate in race baiting. I was tempting to reply, “White people are a one dimensional barrel of fools heavily invested in believing that race doesn’t matter […]
Chris Tanaka, Lake Grove, NY. I am a whole, white passing, Japanese, Native American, French Canadian person. I am not half of this or a quarter of that, I am all of those things at once. I am a whole person.
Abby London-Crawford New York City, NY The Bronx I still teach the songs of the Civil Rights Movement to pass on its legacy to young children.
Ida Canard, NY. Submitted via Twitter: @IdaCanard #theracecardproject
Kavisa, Brooklyn, NY. My parents raised me to be extremely proud and knowledgeable of my African American and Caribbean heritage. My love for Africa intensified further after spending 2+ years living and volunteering in Tanzania. In the mist of becoming fluent in Swahili and embracing East African culture I fell in love with my future […]
Isaiah Akeem, Newburgh, NY.
Jamaal Bowman, Bronx, NY. Love everyone right now!
Brooklyn, NY Submitted via Twitter: @Sistalocks
Lavinia Rodriguez Potsdam, NY
Ruby-Beth Buitekant Brooklyn, NY
Diana Gonzalez, Franklin Square, NY. I am an adopted person. I’ve been searching for my past all my life. I’m 60 now. One of my adopted parents was Austrian and one was Italian. I was raised to think of myself as Italian. In the early 1970’s I searched and found out I was born in […]
Maribel Padilla, West Babylon, NY. I’m in Suffolk County, NY, a predominately white, conservative, suburb in NY and I can’t stand the ignorance anymore!
Yuka, Brooklyn, NY. Least sympathy-eliciting kind of racism ever! It’s like complaining about being rich, smart AND hot! (Image: screenshot of Google image search for “Asian women”) HAHAHAHAHA I want to kill myself.
Kevin, New York, NY. I don’t really understand this whole issue on white guilt, but I think it stems from privilaged elite “European Americans” who feel they have it all and need to clense their conscience somehow and feel guilty. Well I grew up “White” and poor in an all black neighboorhood, took racial abuse […]
Sonya Wang, Ballston Lake, NY. Asian. Asian-American. Doesn’t seem to matter with most people.
Cera Beth, Potsdam, NY.
Barry Irving, Syracuse, NY. …History tells us that Whiteness has always been a social construct that is used to exclude certain groups… ( people of Color ) …The notion of White culture is a Myth… …White People are not a single ethnic Group or a distinct number of ethnicities. They are an amalgamation of everyone […]
David Pham Poughkeepsie, NY When I was young, my mom told me a macabre anecdote about the Vietnam War. She remembered that American soldiers would go through villages in search of Vietcong. As they went through, they would ask villagers in English if they were indeed Vietcong or not. Some villagers, though they did not […]
Karen Brinkman, New York City, NY. Cleaning out my mother’s attic, I came across a vase wrapped in a newspaper page from 1957. This sentence was in a short article about the firing of “Cemetery” Perteet, President Eisenhower’s long time golf caddy. Learn more about Karen’s 6 words in The Milwaukee Journal
Celesti Colds Fechter, Tarrytown, NY. I feel as though when I am the only African-American in a setting that I feel obligated to “speak” for other African-Americans. I will not do it and don’t ask me to do it. I had a job where I was the first African-American hired in a professional setting. I […]
Daphne de Souza Lima Sorensen, Oneonta, NY. I’m a white woman with a perfect American accent. I have a university degree, a husband and a 3 year old daughter. By all accounts, I am a “typical” middle-class woman. Except that I am not American and even though I have lived in the USA on and […]
Lincoln, Brooklyn, NY. Now, the Star-Belly Sneetches Had bellies with stars. The Plain-Belly Sneetches Had none upon thars. Those stars weren’t so big. They were really so small You might think such a thing wouldn’t matter at all.
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.
Erin C. Mitchell Plattsburgh, NY
Heather Ann Lindstrom Buffalo, NY My beautiful son was born to two very different parents. Me, of Swedish and Irish heritage,and his father of Samoan and Chinese heritage. When I would take my son out as a baby, it felt like everyone I met assumed he was adopted and asked “How long have you had […]
Kyla, Potsdam, NY.
Brittany Moore, Syracuse, NY.
Jake Schweber, Scarsdale, NY. There’s a theme of racial superiority that some people carry throughout their livelihood. Some people truly believe that they are better than others because of their race. This shoots the theory that, all men are created equal, out the window.
Annette Maldonado, Rochester, NY. Hispanics are invisible a lot of the times. We are seen as not really white, but not quite Black either.
Tatyana Parrish, Valley Stream, NY. My six words are a fairly simple way to explain how complicated this matter is to me. My father was never there, and my mom worked her absolute ass off in order to make up for that. My father is African American, and because of this I’ve come to resent […]
Janna Sakson, Pound Ridge, NY. This usually strikes me as code for “people of a darker color/race have been moving into the area.” I’m sure that’s not always the case, But when this is said, I’ve asked, “Is it still safe?” And there’s some hemming and hawing…so I wonder.
Mary Halling, Milwaukee, WI. Moving from New York to Ohio to Milwaukee in my 25 years on this Earth, I’ve encountered race in so many different ways. From celebrating and learning about all the different ethnicities in my classroom in elementary school, being bullied for being white in my urban middle school, to being incorrectly […]
Keith Rhodes, Albany, NY. We can make this world a better place for all people one person at a time. Know that your actions become your qualities. Perform the actions that you wish to be the qualities of all who observe you.
Anonymous, Syracuse, NY.
Lianna Thomas, Congers, NY. I am a Chinese adoptee. Ive lived in NY practically my entire life (since I was 7 months old). My family is entirely white and I was brought up in a western culture with western traditions. I celebrate my eastern culture as well through holidays like chinese new year, I study […]
Tatiana, Syracuse, NY.
JuLaw, Syracuse, NY. When I was in Fla. in the 60s, Blacks (colored people, negroes,) or what name you may have been called, could not sit on the front sit a bus. We had to go into the back of the bus. Today, externally, it may not be that way, but in some cases, internally, […]
Phil Arnold, Syracuse, NY.
Peter Moorman, Syracuse, NY. The race card as in the term not the physical cards
Vickie Crawford, Syracuse, NY. My Dad use to call me “yellow girl”, my Mom when mad called me “little yellow wench”, and I was happy go lucky I think because I didn’t know I was BLACK. It wasn’t brought to my attention until I went to kindergarten that I was black??? I feel I can […]
Kwabena Tettey, Syracuse, NY. The CONTINENT of Africa is not one big jungle inhabited by villagers in mud huts and wild animals. I do not have a lion as a pet nor do I ride on elephants to get to places. I also did not row a canoe over the Atlantic Ocean in order to […]
Lex, Syracuse, NY. I’m originated from Shanghai, China, currently doing a PhD at Syracuse University. Unavoidably, I have been welcomed with the question “where are you from” on a daily basis. It seems that not many people actually cares about the real answer: Shanghai — people generally don’t care about that corner of the globe […]
Bonnie Shoultz, Syracuse, NY. I was a young person during the 1960s, and dreamed that this country would overcome its terrible history of oppression and enslavement of whole groups of people based on their race, culture, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and class. We have made many changes, but oppression and murder of people who are […]
Sonya Wang, Ballston Lake, NY. Yes, Asian-American issues are not addressed with the same urgency as many other important issues However, they are not addressed because Asian-American issues tend to be placed under the blanket ‘model minority’ stereotype, and that is simply not true.
Gianna Donovan, New York, NY.
The Rev. Kate LUfkin Day, Syracuse, NY. I am a white woman age 60. I chose the word “impenetrable” even though I sometimes experience moments of black-white mutual understanding, because I have found that the divide is so huge and daunting. It is better since my growing-up years in the sixties, but it is very […]
Carla Washington, New York, NY.
Rachel James, Syracuse, NY. Growing up in a Latina household I learned the English that my mother spoke as a Panamanian immigrant. Therefore, I learned to say certain words while rolling my r’s or with an accent and I don’t notice it because that’s how I learned to pronounce them. But because I look more […]
Kyler Harrington, Syracuse, NY. Student ’16
Austin Smith, Fayetteville, NY. Student ’15
Rose Collins, Syracuse, NY. Highschool Student ’16 I believe that if we don’t appreciate our differences or acknowledge the fact that we are all different, then we will repeat the prejudice and pain we’ve seen in our past. We all have different stories and cultures, and if we don’t acknowledge that then we will be […]
Kane, Syracuse, NY.
Eric Goodwin, Syracuse, NY.
Josh, Syracuse, NY.
Sophia Klemenz, Liverpool, NY. It should not matter what race you are. We are all occupying the same planet and should be able to get along despite what we look like and where we came from.
Emmett Dunn, Syracuse, NY. Student ’15
Conor Gollegly, Syracuse, NY. Student ’15
Justin, Syracuse, NY.
John Smith, Syracuse, NY. Student ’16
Johnny V. Miller, Syracuse, NY.
Hunter Andersen, Cortland, NY. Student ’15
Monte Stroman, Syracuse, NY. Student ’15 I am black but if you look past my skin you would never know
Andrew Stephen Kock, Syracuse, NY.
Eve, Syracuse, NY. Student ’16 You should not let people’s color affect your opinion of them.
Jack Jeschke, Syracuse, NY.
Chris Bedigian, Syracuse, NY.
Dana Tuohey, Syracuse, NY. Community Member I believe that racism is more harmful now to society than ever. I believe this is so because we have convinced ourselves that slavery and the civil rights movements were “victories” for the minorities of our society and we no longer owe it to the other races to continue […]
Nick Thurlow, Syracuse, NY. Student ’15
Elizabeth Adams, Manilus, NY. Student ’16 “Racial Profiling”
Scarlet Louis-Jean, Syracuse, NY.
Stanley Dean, Syracuse, NY.
Barry Irving, Syracuse, NY. …white people are bred from the notion color superiority and first privilege. They don’t see others as equal and that is a distortion that is age old. So when addressing race, the new descendants of old Racism think that they have no blame whatsoever. Even though Their social attitudes are in […]
Vicki R. Brackens, North Syracuse, NY. Community Member
Michelle Liv, New York City, NY. Brooklyn As a person of color, it still angers me that mainstream society still regards what is “white” as “normal” or the status quo. I hate being judged on my racial appearance and assumed that I do not speak English because I am not white. These words were uttered […]
Zachary Hill, New Rochelle, NY.
Teagan Peacock, Syracuse, NY. There is only one African-American family in my rural neighborhood. My stepbrother got into a fight with one of the boys in the family and threatened to hang him. I was never more embarrassed in my life.
Stacey Millard, Syracuse, NY.
Stevie Stan, Tarrytown, NY. Is “American” a race? No! Neither is “Cuban.” Born in the U.S. to Cuban parents who descend from white Spaniards, I’m white and blue-eyed. Most Americans are still behind with thinking anyone of Hispanic background is automatically “brown” or “Mexican.” It’s not as if Europeans ONLY migrated to what became the […]
Stephanie Susens, New York, NY. We have made progress, but I am frustrated by the amount of racism that still exists in our country. Unarmed African American teenagers are still being shot all over the U.S.
Jonathan, New York City, NY. Whenever I see white women walking towards me I cross the road. I am afraid they will be judgMENTAL. From experience, I find them to be accusers. I am working on it.
Annie Greenberger, New York, NY. Georgetown Day School I realize that I have the choice whether to engage in this project, I have the choice not make a statement, I can decide if it is important to me and the is my white privilege.
Matt Gilbert, Penfield, NY.
Lauren, Fairpoint, NY. I was required to do this for a MSW course on ethnic diversity. As a white, Italian-American woman, it was very difficult for me to think of an example of a racial micro-aggression that I have experienced. I have coarse, curly black hair. The statement was meant to be an insult.
Michael Havis, Brooklyn, NY. I think the word racism no longer defines the conversation we should be having. The image of racism in America is of the KKK or southern slave owners with whips. Being racist and being a good person are not mutually exclusive. Racism today isn’t being a part of lynch mobs or […]
Ilana Gorelik, Brooklyn, NY. I’m looking to the cookie, myself.
Bruce Brown, Port Jefferson, NY.
Diana Emiko Tsuchida, New York, NY.
Marquita, Rochester, NY.
Sylvia Langford, Jamesville, NY. I sincerely wish we could accept race without judgement, because too often that acknowledgement brings with it negative connotations.
Paul T., North Babylon, NY.
Lee Stringer Mamaroneck, NY I was born into a place and era in which the aspiration was to assimilate. Of course, once I got a good handle on doing this, it was The Sixties and everything changed. The new order of things was to wear your ethnicity on your sleeve. So there I was, Sidney […]
Glenda Wiley Brooklyn, NY
Samantha Lauren New York, NY Hate when people have the audacity to say to ANYONE that they ought to “just call themselves American” instead of Afro-American, Asian-American, Polish-American, or whatever. I am an American and as an American it’s my RIGHT to identify however I choose; I am an American of African descent, therefore I’m […]
New york City, NY Submitted via Twitter: @junecross
Misha N Utica, NY I was born in the Caribbean, and I am Black, For some reason people insist on saying I’m “African American”. It’s not a bad word. I am not American, therefore I am not “African American”
Sheila Katzman Brooklyn, NY We got too comfortable after the civil rights act, hence the disrespect for the US president in 2014.
Nia Scott Brooklyn, NY
Hannah Rye, NY
Andrea Godbout Brooklyn, NY
Linda Levittown, NY My three children are a mix of English/Irish and Puerto Rican and when you line them up in a row, you can see one mirrors me, the second mirors my husband and our third is a pretty even split down the middle and can “fit” either side of our mixed family. A […]
Mary Lambert Merrick, NY I lived through the Civil Rights Movement. I once walked out of a store in SDouth Bend IN and was confronted with a full scale KKK march. I remember the riots of 1968–I lived in a mixed race neighborhood and we often sat on ourporch and watched the fires buring a […]
Malcolm Long Corley New York City, NY Brooklyn It is amazing how people lived and fought during these times. Seeing the black and white pictures almost gives the viewer the same experiences of whats happening in the pictures.
Asha Parker New York City, NY Though we have come a long way, we are still shown on a daily basis that we are no where near the end of the fight to end racial discrimination.
Jennifer Achilles New York CIty, NY Manhattan I wish people understood the power of institutionalized racism and sexism in our society — it’s not about one person or one news network feeling a certain way; we are all affected.
Donte Griffin New York City, NY
Brianna Zimmerman New York City, NY
Miriam Haas Ossining, NY Early one morning my mother sister and I left the county center parking lot in White Plains NY for a trip to Washington. I was in the sixth grade and white. We went to the March on Washington. I will never forget it.
Storm Alexander Brooklyn, NY
Jade Watson New York, NY I don’t have anything against interracial dating, but I choose to date and want to marry a black man, because I want my babies- my family to be black. I love being black. I love what being black has meant to my life. I love being a part of a […]
Joan Pleune New York City, NY Brooklyn I was a 1961 freedom rider. When I look at Brooklyn today through a lens of race, life seems better for only a handful of lucky souls.
Doris Bell New York City, NY Brooklyn In my experience in the public school system in NYC starting in 1927 there was always an awareness of discrimination that I had to overcome in order to achieve my goals.
Anonymous New York City, NY Queens
JiHyeon Shaabaz Harlem, NY I may be mixed with a multitude of things but I am human .
Zach New Rochelle, NY
Nina New York City, NY IT IS A CONTINUAL PROCESS TO UNPACK THE DANGEROUS THINGS I WAS TAUGHT AND TO UNDERSTAND HOW IT AFFECTS HOW I SEE OTHERS AND LIVE MY LIFE.
Mickey Lambert New York City, NY Brooklyn In a time that most people think of as a “post-civil-rights” era, in many ways, we are more tied up in injustice and inequality than ever. These images and sounds are a reminder that social justice looks like something more encompassing.
Ashley New York City, NY The Bronx
Lorraine LaPrade New York City, NY Brooklyn Learning about the Civil Rights movement gave me confidence as a young woman.
Leslie Brooklyn, NY From the southwest. Speak English and Spanish.
Meredith Doherty Brooklyn, NY
Christopher Loncke New York City, NY Brooklyn
Amalia New York City, NY Brooklyn
