The Race Card Project
By Michele Norris
Jackie Spencer,
New York, NY.
The generalization we attach to people based on race is appalling. As an example when you speak of “immigrants” you do not think of this white blond person! I hope that raising this point makes people think before they generalize. We are all individuals with different beliefs and personalities and looks, but at the core we are all the same. Vive La Differance!
Maggie C
Portsmouth, VA
My friends and family notice his skin color first, instead of his amazing personality or how much he loves me.
Melissa Pierce,
Bowling Green, OH.
As people, we need to start seeing each other for who they are rather than what they are. People have personalities, souls, and feelings that we are not taking account of when we only see skin color.
Juliet Rose,
Banning, CA.
Hi, my name is Juliet, and I’m white. Well, white-passing. I’m 1/8th Filipino and I still don’t know if that even counts to the vast majority of people, all I know is my skin is white and people have actually used that against me before. I know white people have done a lot, even most of the wrongs done to minorities, and minorities have every right to be wary. I just find it really distressing to know there are people, wonderful people with fantastic personalities, that I will never get to be friends with because they genuinely hate or fear white people. I don’t have the right to say “it’s not fair” because I don’t understand the struggle of minorities. I just hope that, someday, this mess will all be over and I don’t have to worry about who I can and can’t talk to without making them nervous or angry.
R.E.A.L. Talk,
High Tech Middle Media Arts,
7th Grade Trailblazer
Through parts of my life people and kids that I have known claim that something is racist or to use it as a insult. I have never been the target of these insult but it bothers me every time that someone has said one. During this project when I learned about how race isn’t real I was shocked to really realize what all of those kids I know have been saying such lies. What I do know though is that the kids that have said things like that aren’t educated on what race really is. The 6 word memoir that I have created reflects on my experience. To me every race can have people with a good and great heart but also ones who don’t. This makes me believe that anyone who is racist has hardly been exposed to lots of unique and different people. Also that anyone can learn more about what they believe even if it’s wrong. I am proud at what my personality is like to this subject. I hope that soon more and more kids can have the same perspective as I am glad to have.
Race is fake but, society doesn’t think so.
It has recently been proved that biologically race isn’t a real thing, but, is socially a powerful topic, that can dramatically affect someone’s life. The largest dilemma that causes racism in the younger generations is the lack of education about this topic. According to Professor Marcus Feldman of Stanford University and his team “All humans are 99.9% identical and, of that tiny 0.1% difference, 94 % of the variation is among individuals from the same populations and only 6 % between individuals from different populations.”. This is proof that race is something that has been created and then built onto by the people who don’t take the time to truly work through their thoughts. People may say that white is a better race than the others, but that only goes skin deep… we all have the same problems. We also have the same things to be proud of within what we can learn and grow to be. This really shows how gullible people can be if they listen to others and don’t think for themselves. Race is something that was truly created because of the differences of people and then was breed into a huge social problem. Education is what can fuel a downfall of race and racism. If there are people who know what is right then there is a chance ; One that is growing; to stop the wrongness in our society.
Back when I was a kid, I used to wonder why or how people are different, why do we all have different races? When I was in preschool, my mom would always tell me not to play with kids that were bad. Those kids were black. She said that they were troublemakers, misbehaved, and that they don’t have any manners. And of course, I believed her. Most of my life, I only cared about what somebody looked like on the outside. Now, I know how wrong of me it was to assume somebody’s personality. This project has changed me a lot in many ways. It has taught me how we all need to be fair to each other, it has taught me that nobody’s appearance screams out their identity, I have also learned that not everyone is a bad person and that people are different.
Race is not natural, it’s taught.
It all began in the 18th century. Scientists developed categorizing things in nature, including humans. According to the RACE website, “The 19th century also marked a period of widespread racialization—not just of African Americans—but of Native Americans, Mexican Americans and Chinese Americans as well. Much of the racializing of non-Europeans, and even the Irish, served an economic and political purpose.” This is not fair. People were categorized into groups. Blacks, Asians, Mexicans, Italians, separated from each other. Why were we categorized? As reported in “The Story of Race and the Classification of People”, “ In 1680 AD, the idea of classification by appearance slowly began to permeate society as lawmakers in the early colonies of North America began to use “white” as a classification of themselves rather than “Englishmen” or “Christians.” See how this is not fair? I’m pretty sure we all have questions about race such as, aren’t we all just one human race? Will racism ever go away? How do we become racists?, How did racism start?, and who started racism? Some of these answers can’t be found…but one thing I know is that race is not a natural thing, it is the others that taught us.
Anika Dixon,
Little Rock, AR.
The color of my skin should not determine the type of house I can sell you or the type of properties I can manage for you! You allow me to manage your ‘hood properties’ but you allow your own to manage your ‘no problem’ properties. REALLY??
Shelby,
Sunnyvale, CA.
Too many people in this world focus on how we look when we should be focused on our character and our personality. We are too fascinated with our physical appearance when we should be fascinated with our words, our actions and our intelligence. Those are the things that should truly define who we are. Race, gender, social class, and social class should not define who we are and should not dictate our relationships with people. The idea of race was created by society and too many times has it caused wars and senseless acts of violence both physically psychologically. It’s time to stop looking at each other’s physical traits and start seeing what’s on the inside. We are all people and we are all living among each other. Why can’t we do it in peace?
Margarita,
San Marcos, CA.
Many people have judged not just me but my parents as well because of their citizenship status, we’re not good enough, just a burden to society. People have said that I won’t finish high school because I’ll end up pregnant by my senior year. My parents have had trouble getting jobs before because they didn’t speak English well or they seemed untrustworthy just because of their citizenship. My parents are the hardest working people I know. And as far as I know I’ll be graduating next year in June.
Patana Bountharack,
Akron, OH.
Alexa Fay,
Seattle, WA.
I dance at a predominately black dance studio, and anyone who sees my friends there is quick to point out that I look different from everyone else. I wish they cared more about my personality than my skin color.
Meghan I
CA
With the stereotype of blonde’s being dumb, I enjoy proving this wrong with my high college GPA, hard work ethic, and confident personality.
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