I never even thought about race.
Ric Leczel, San Gabriel, CA I grew up in a firehouse with every race. We spent every holiday together. Black and Mexican and Indian firefighters...
The Race Card Project
By Michele Norris
Ric Leczel, San Gabriel, CA I grew up in a firehouse with every race. We spent every holiday together. Black and Mexican and Indian firefighters...
DeAnna Calderon, Austin, TX. I grew up poor in the Southside of Chicago. We were extremely poor and even homeless at times. Sleeping outside in...
Adrianne Tomkinson, Aurora, IL I am white. I am female. I grew up poor with black, brown, white and yellow neighbors. I loved and felt...
Ally, USA. I know that in the past, it was better to have lighter skin because that meant you weren’t poor, but now, with all...
Thaddeus, Nashville, TN. I was raised poor in Louisiana where the generations of my family before me farmed and picked cotton, fished and lived off...
Abi, Aurora, CO I’ve grown up in the suburbs where the families all seem perfect and happy life the picket white fence families, Mine wasn’t...
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”...
Jules M. Marquart, Louisville, KY. In Louisville during the pre-busing 1960s, this “screening” question was based on assumptions and generalizations about race and class. A...
Michael, Livonia, MI It strikes me over and over again that we confuse the problems of being poor with racism. Dr. Martin Luther King understood...
Madi, Scottsdale, AZ Actually, this is the opposite of what is true, but what everyone assumes. I’m from Scottsdale, Arizona where there are many extremely...
Louis Wausau, WI 2013 Attitude, Uneducated, Dependant, Poor, Feared, Unhappy
Christine Farrell, Naches, WA. My dad was an Italian/Irishman who grew up in the Bronx and Harlem areas of New York City. He grew up...
Jillian Kurekova, USA. I am a 21 year old white female living in the ghetto. I have always been the outcast. I grew up in...
Katy Wilkerson, Houston, TX. In the deep South, in my experience, racism is pervasive, especially when you talk about poorer and poorer white people (not...
Chris, Redlands, CA. Growing up on welfare, to a single mother in rural Michigan, I learned not to expect help from anyone. However, my whole...
Francis Lafayette, NC. Much like modern Germans, lower class white males in America have been granted a shame about their past. We’ve been told the...