Rich white guys run the world
Tracy Staggers,
Seattle, WA
Obama is what America would like to be, Trump is what America is.
My kids know of black presidents
Kim Callahan
Portland, OR
I am a white single mom, my son and daughter (11 & 10) are siblings I adopted from Haiti. For all its liberalism, Portland is still a pretty segregated city and we live in a predominantly white neighborhood. My kids have African American & Haitian mentors, Big Sister, therapists, etc.. and I do everything I can to put my kids in places and experiences where they don’t always feel like they stand out so much. We’re dialed in with the Haitian community and also with other families who’ve adopted from Haiti. So I was extra happy when Obama was elected b/c it gave concrete evidence to when I tell them they can do anything they want to do when they grow up—b/c even the brown president was the son of a white single mother!! (we say “brown” in our house b/c kids are so literal and they are young enough that they say things like, “Mom, I’m not black, your pants are black, I am brown…” As a mom, it is a GREAT feeling that my kids only know a world where the most powerful man in the world looks like them!!
Thank you for doing this project. Many adults still need to catch up with our kids on issues like skin color, gay marriage, etc..
No new White friends since 2008.
Anonymous
USA
The internet really makes me dislike white people more than I ever have. It’s gotten worse since Obama became president. I dream of a day when black people of means decide to create our own communities/cities/states away from white people, but I know it won’t happen. And I’d rather my kids be gay than bring home a white person.
Well…there’s so many minorities now…
Tony Reyes,
Portland, OR.
I’m half Latino. My mother is a white, evangelical, conservative. I came home the night Obama was re-elected and asked if she had heard the results. The above statement was how she very bitterly responded. Apparently people of color aren’t intellectually capable of choosing a president on the basis of anything else but race. I have quite a few memories concerning race that fill me with anger. Anger both at people and at myself for not standing up. Because I’m light-skinned, I’ve been present during times where groups of white people (I grew up in the suburbs) think there’s no one around to offend. Out of all the stories I could have chosen, I chose this story to illustrate that racism is real, it’s painful, and literally no sector of society is immune to it. Not even family. I feel much better just from writing this.
Every human being is entitled to humanity
Erik,
Netherlands.
Obama said in Athens: “To see different cultures and meet different people is important to understand ourselves and our place in the world. Here, so many ideas about democracy, notions of citizenship and rule of law began to develop. That is something of value.”
Heart isn’t racist false accusations anger
Kevin Antonelli,
Vienna, NJ.
I remember the riots of the 1960’s yet at the time as a young child didn’t know the reason behind them or what was going on in the world. I was raised by an Archie Bunker and lived in a W.A.S.P. town with one black family. I was a racist but didn’t know why- it just was.
Then I entered the Army and a Black man, Willie, saved my life. I lived with, were brothers with those that were different than me and it shed new light about my fellow human beings. I then worked for a company that secretly practiced discrimination and I was torn between keeping my job and my beliefs that if they qualified for an apt just like a white man did they should have the right to housing.
All through my life I personally tried to do what I could to make a difference in how I treated black at the same time somehow how i was raised was still somewhere influencing me. But then at the same time, I resented the black community calling me racists without knowing who I am but just because I was white I must automatically be a racist. I personally do not believe anyone is better than the next person regardless of the circumstances– and I resent when people act as if they are- regardless of their race. I was passed up for a promotion to Sergeant in the Army because the other guy was black and I was told that outright.
I had nothing against the other man- he was my brother, I had his back he had mine- but he was not better than me. When Obama became President, although I did not vote for him not because he was black but because I didn’t support his political views–i still felt how wonderful it was that this country has come so far as to elect a black person President. BUT then by his actions and those of his wife, those actions of some of his administration such as Eric Holder- in their efforts to make a difference in the black mans lives– they alienated me as an American just because I was white. They themselves demonstrated themselves to be racists and I resent that. I believe that President Obama, his wife and others have created the division that we see in the US now and that although they tried to do good- they brought this country backwards and in the end– did not benefit the people they tried to help
I’m white; I fear the South.
Leighayn Green,
Nutrioso, AZ.
When I see the Confederate flag on something, I am wary and a little fearful of the person who put it there. My dad and his dad are from Texas. I remember my granddad exclaiming in awe and admiration a run Tony Dorsett made for the Dallas Cowboys back in the 70’s. He used the n-word in his exclamation. I was shocked. When I was 18, I asked my dad (who always maintained he was not racist) to stop telling racist jokes in my presence. He did. My mom was from Michigan and more socially liberal; however, she always cautioned against interracial marriage because of “how difficult it would be for the children.” I feel racism has grown or become more vocal and more acceptable in my community and in many parts of the United States since President Obama was elected under the guise of “free speech” and “I’m not racist, I just don’t like his policies.” Why would anyone in a rural, Mormon pioneer Arizona town feel an affinity for the Confederate flag? Yet, I see it on belt buckles and trucks of my high school students.
If Obama’s only Black, everyone loses.
Lorna Dianne Stookey
Fredericktown, MO
It cut deep, the aftermath of the 2008 election. I woke up to find racism splashed across the front page: “We finally got one of OURS in the White House.” Whose “ours” was he? He’s multicultural, multi-ethnic, and multiracial! He’s European American and African American. He’s “Everyman.” Could have been the best advertisement for America — we celebrate out diversity by electing him to be the President for EVERY ONE OF US! But no. Thenceforth, he was only and always called a ‘Black’ President, because he had brown skin. And despite my vote, I felt deep loss. History will record that he was the first “Black” President and overshadow any and all he has accomplished. Are we back to the days of, “The eighth crossing clears the blood?”
I wanted to scream out, “HE’S MY PRESIDENT, TOO!” But forget it. He’s clearly been claimed by his perceived race. News flash: if approximately 20% of Americans are Black, then it also took a he!!uva lot of “us” to elect him! Why are we still “us-ing” and “them-ing?”
I got on his website and typed out my message, “If it’s still all about race, then we’re still all wrong.” But for the last four years, every argument on the internet brands the dissenters “racist.” Seriously? All his other virtues, all the things that could be said in praise of him, and he’s only as good as half his racial heritage? My heart breaks. He’s at least as great an orator as Kennedy. He’s a visionary. He has a broader perspective to bring from experiencing other countries and cultures. His first campaign was all about successfully injecting hope back into the ordinary American citizen, hope of being heard, hope of everyone being counted as worthwhile, hope of ending the pseudo-aristocracy that has been formed by rampant capitalism and lifetime politicians, and hope of working together, heedless of race, to elect this fresh new face whose words resonated in the hearts of the citizenry. Anybody thought of that stuff lately? Nope, he’s only “Black,” and disagreement is equated to being a racist. How many centuries until we get to have a real dialogue??
Or is he still only allowed to be “black?”
So much work to be done.
Jen Davison,
Seattle, WA.
I am White. When I voted for Obama I said “I don’t see color.” Well, I do now–and I feel ashamed and flabbergasted that I’d not realized my privilege before. Trying my best to dismantle my own White-Supremacy beliefs and behaviors and to be an ally–or at least to hurt people less. Makes me sad to see/hear Whites who don’t (yet?) get it. But it’s nothing compared to what people of color feel and experience every day. I hope these times of hate crimes and White nationalism are a threshold event for a more just society. I will do what I can to help.
But he touched the Black President.
Submitted via Twitter: @Only4RM @michele_norris, #6words, #TheRaceCardProject
How the RW GOP fringe took down Charlie Crist in FL (now a D) & how they attacked Chris Christie & now Marco Rubio.
Michele Norris @michele_norris
I want to know the backstory behind these six words — “But he touched the Black President ..@Only4RM
The GOP perspective on “But he touched the Black President”, attack ad grist. @michele_norris
Only4RM @Only4RM Feb 18
Meanwhile, America elected Pres. Obama 2X & this ALSO reflects “But he touched the Black President.”
This touching photo from eagle eyed @petesouza made me think of 6words you sent to http://theracecardproject.com @Only4RM
I look black; never felt it.
Janetta Stringfellow
Brookline, MA
Tons! Grew up in Cape Elizabeth, Maine in the ’70s with a white mother who denied I was adopted. Found my birth mother when I was 31, who is also white, but at least had a story about a Kenyon grad student she hooked up with on her 18th bday in 1964. Denying I’m black has been the catalyst for most bad decisions in my life. When I was a kid, NOBODY talked about “identity.” And Obama certainly wasn’t president. I used to be the only person with this story — now there are so many. I wish I could have spoken about it sooner.
Now we can talk about race
Gary Seven
Nashville, TN
All during the election season, conservatives were claiming that President Obama did nothing to unify the country about issues of race, (as if he were capable of, and was singularly responsible for doing so by himself.) Their claim was that he was the most divisive president in history when in fact that whole regrettable episode served to highlight their own inherent racism, especially within the tea party and Fox news, (which they would both quickly and ineptly deny.)
We’ve come a long way as a country…From this “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty“…to this…“The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.“ I submit to you that we are forced to accept that there is both overt and covert racism in this country. Only then we can finally begin a discussion about something that does in fact exist, rather than desperately trying to deny something that is so powerful, as to insist that it is a figment of our collective imaginations.
African-Americans are more racist
Corey,
USA.
93%-95% of African-Americans voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012. Is it a coincidence that Obama is African-American? African-Americans can call each other “n*****” and freak out when white people use the word in a non-insulting way. They call white people crackers and they don’t care. If someone commits a crime towards an African-American person, it must be a hate crime! Police are supposedly racist? Is it a coincidence that most crimes seem to be commited by African-Americans? African-Americans are making the big deal out of racism but don’t realize that racism only exists because people continue to acknowledge it and African-Americans make big deals out of it. Kids aren’t born racist. They are brought into a racist world. The people trying to prevent racism cause it.
Obama was black 148 years ago.
Kendra Jones,
Selma, AL.
As a white woman who voted for Obama twice, I found myself wanting to claim him as my own. “He’s half white, I’d insist to myself.” But then I began to think about our past anti-miscegenation laws in the 19th century. An individual with as little as 1/32nd percent African ancestry would have been labeled as Black–and denied.the status of a full human being. Obama deserves all his beautiful blackness. America wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Race matters I wish it didn’t.
Vicki Meek,
Dallas, TX.
As a child of civil/human rights activists, I’ve spent my life fighting for social justice. I must admit, I never expected to see an African American head our country and was elated when President Obama won the 2008 Presidential election. But I am a realist and so I knew this supposed sign that America had gotten past race being a critical issue was really going to unleash the unspoken racial problems that America had swept under the rug post civil rights era; and indeed it did. Racism is back on the table in a very big way with the internet aiding and abetting in its health and welfare. We see evidence of its presence with every and any post that involves a discussion of people of color. I wish race didn’t matter but the reality is when you live in a country where race never gets an honest dialogue, it will always matter. I am 63, my children are 28 and 31. Neither have produced children yet but maybe by the time they do, those grandchildren will live in an America where the only reason race will matter is to celebrate difference and not condemn it.
Respect for black President; my dream
Susan Cooper
Alexandria, VA
I’m not black, but I really wish that more Americans would show some respect for our first black President.
Never met black I didn’t like
Stan Sankey,
Federal Way, WA.
While liking all my black friends, many on the national scene are trouble makers.
The country is more divided than in many years under Obama and Holder.
