The Race Card Project
By Michele Norris
Jainaba,
Sioux City, IA
I chose these words because African Americans are often seen as strong and tough, but this stereotype hides the emotional and mental struggles we face. Being labeled “strong” can make people ignore our feelings and need for support. These words show how stereotypes erase individuality and make it harder to see the real pain many African Americans deal with every day.
Michael McMillian,
San Clemente, CA
I was born in Louisiana in the 80s where issues like poverty, educational disparities, and racialized policing were part of daily life. Those who benefit from systemic advantages often remain oblivious to these struggles, hence “never understanding the pain.”
Jaclyn Flint,
Elmira, NY
I’ve been through a lot of pain, friends are complicated. You hang out with people for so many years, don’t know they’re racists, or jerks. Automatically if you’re with those people, you’re the same as them. When will it be normalized as ‘just because you hang out with them, you’re not like them’? Those friends have hurt me a lot and I’m still friends with them for the same reason as most people, I’ve known them and only them really. No one else wanted to be friends with me, this was my group and even though we had some rough times, the pain I had got set aside, because to them I’m “white and supposed to push through the pain because people have it worse”. Yes, people have it worse but just because I’m white, doesn’t mean I can’t have feelings because news flash, my life is rough too, which was a shocker to them.
Jasmine Shabazz,
Beachwood, Ohio.
So, never once have I blamed the white kids and there families for slavery. Never once did I say there ancestors enslaved mine. And I hate to look like the girl who always plays the race card, or who always wants to cry about the struggles my ancestors went through. But when I feel like my struggle is being downplayed or overlooked I can’t help but too speak out. And to my peers it may seem like I’m always speaking, but that’s the result of being more than one minority. My mother is Puerto rican and black, My father is Saudi Arabian and black. Highly unfavored! And I would never put my struggle over anyone else’s but at my school it is a high concentration of Jewish people and its so amazing to me too see there culture thrive and how tight knit the community is. And so when you sit in a class of kids that are mainly Jewish it seems at times that there struggle is being put over mine. And that doesn’t go down easy for me because after there oppression they bounced back and I commend there community for being so strong. But my people are still so broken that we can’t seem to get ahead and this kills me because I wish after our culture has been erased and we have been stepped on that we can come back and unify and show how magic us ” Blacks” really are. But in 2016 it seems impossible. SO I’m sorry if this has offended anyone but I can’t hold my tongue when it comes to defending and representing my ancestors. I accept there struggle as my own and it will not be forgotten until the pain is.
Adrienne Davis,
Durham, NC.
I feel like white folks want to consume our pain and oppression but don’t want to commit to be accomplices in the work. Our pain is suppose to “help them grow”. No. That’s not how this works.
Jua Fluellen,
Washington, DC.
I would like for more people to deconstruct the role race places in the way they are perceived and responded to within their immediate environment. I would like for more people to develop the skills of conversing about race across difference in a way that can deepen our understanding of what racism is and how it actually functions. This way, more of us can consciously counter racism as a system.
Melissa Flowers,
Trinity University
My mother is caucasian and my father is black. I have immense privilege in my life, and I feel that being a biracial woman gives me a sense of pride which leads to strength and confidence. But this comes at a cost. I am often referred to as “acting white” by colleagues, friends, and even family members. I also feel as though I am looked to to defend or represent the “black perspective” on a number of things professionally. This causes confusion. This causes pain.
Contemplating all of these emotions in the context of being a wife to a black man and a mother to two interracial children has made my identify exploration evermore challenging and complex. Being biracial is a lifelong learning experience – one I embrace proudly.
Harry Ford,
Minneapolis, MN.
Race is a difficult subject given the large amount of pain many people of color have experienced related to race within this American landscape. We are people in pain hoping that our contributions will be seen by the others.
Amanda Adams,
MA.
People don’t realize how deeply ingrained racism is in our country and in the whole world. We can’t ignore such a painful and divisive issue- instead, we must work to overcome people’s hate and ignorance so that we can truly start to judge people only by their character.
Clayton,
CA.
I spent a lot of my misguided youth playing video games into the late hours of the night. It was how I found solace in times of pain or loneliness. Because you can’t see another person physically when playing games — only their avatar — you really can’t tell what race someone might be. Certainly you can make informed guesses based on things you might learn about them, their culture, or the language they speak, but nobody can know unless you tell them. Not having visual perception makes for interesting interactions. It highlights some of the inherent biological biases people have, and the fact that it is something we should strive to overcome.
Kenzie Raulin,
Silver Spring, MD.
It gets harder and harder to awaken to the pain caused by ‘white’ folks, out of ignorance, pain, greed. It’s not our fault, but I do feel it’s our responsibility to help change the world.
Nelson Morgan,
Miramar, FL.
My hue is from God.
My pain is from man.
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.
Sean D. Stuber
USA
I don’t remember what I said that prompted my daughter’s question. It was during a casual conversation about my experiences growing up, the good, the bad, the exciting, the boring, etc. and then we started talking about other people we knew that were from different places and what they had done while they were growing up that was different because of where they lived and when. At some point in the conversation I made a comment about difficulties blacks had in various places and times. I didn’t think much of it, I don’t even recall what I said but my daughter (4 at the time) thought it was an odd thing to say and then, thinking of our next-door neighbor, asked “Why would someone not like Dorothy?” for a split second I paused, backtracking through the conversation to figure out why she had asked and then it occurred to me that I was about to introduce her to a world with hate that she had never known.
It’s a lesson we all learn at some point; but it was a painful-shock to realize I was going to watch the exact instant that my child’s world would grow irrevocably darker.
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