The Race Card Project
By Michele Norris
Robert McAlister,
Lexington, SC.
Grew up in segregated south in a single parent home. Always felt on the margins but later in life realized my mom was ahead of her time in accepting and seeing everyone as God’s children.
Monica Mary Maul,
Lakebay, WA
I grew up in the central area of Seattle 1958 through the 1990’s. And my friends were of many skin colors and none of this mattered to me. I was a child who did not know about segregation, prejudice or color fear. The one’s I were fearful later in life were those ignorant white people who were outside my neighborhood of origin. I still have a feeling about ‘them’ today. So, I am white but I am not ‘white’ inside. I am a lot of different colors inside and I like it that way. This is how my mom planned it, living in the CD. I thank her for this.
Sara Przybylski
Stevens Point, WI
People think this is a great place to live, work, and raise kids… and it is. Just under the surface, though, there’s a little more going on. I grew up here. I saw my first African American person at the grocery store at the age of four-ish and loudly complimented his “really good tan,” much to my poor mother’s embarrassment. There wasn’t much in the way of cultural diversity (save a family here or there) until the late 80s, when Hmong refugees were relocated to, among other places, Central Wisconsin. Since then, our Hispanic population has also increased (some of the population is migrant, some year-round), and more African-American families and individuals have moved to the area. While the White population sits at around 85% or so, things look different than they did just 25 years ago… and some people aren’t reacting well.
I teach English as a Second Language, and work closely with many of these students who, a quarter of a century ago, would have looked incredibly out of place in our schools or on our streets. On the surface, things are OK… and then you start hearing things. We’ve gotten past the “Hmong people will eat your dogs!” fever of the early 1990s, but I’ve had (college-educated) friends make some comments that could have come straight out of the mouths of 1960s-style segregationists.
“I’m glad I don’t live in that neighborhood anymore. You know, the Hmongs.”
“They all used to live in the John’s Drive housing area. Why are they moving other places? It’s better to keep all those kids at one school.”
“They live, like, 12 people to a house. This isn’t the third world. We don’t live with four generations and an aunt and an uncle under one roof here.”
“I’m glad my kids are in private school so we don’t have to deal with all that.”
These are things I hear from people who I would otherwise have considered to be friends. College-educated, mostly. The half-truths and twisted truths and complete fabrications boggle the mind. The historical hypocrisy of it never ceases to amaze. Yes, many second-generation citizens are still speaking a language other than English at home. You know what? My grandmother, whose grandfather immigrated to the U.S. from Poland before her father was born, failed kindergarten because she couldn’t speak English. So, you know… pot, meet kettle. Know your own cultural history before you shoot your mouth off about someone’s assimilation, or lack thereof. Last I checked, we still eat ponczkis before Lent starts and dance the Polka at weddings, and most Polish-Americans in Portage County are, what, fourth (Fifth? More-th?) generation at this point.
I love you, dear hometown, but you’ve got some work to do.
Jack T Buss,
Belfast, ME
I grew up accepting the concept that black people could not live in my hometown. I realize now many of my life choices reflected that philosophy. I wonder how my life would have been enriched if I had chosen to interact more with people different races. How much of the current divisiveness in our country is the result of this?
J. Conway,
USA
My grandparents were against segregation until my parents school was desegregated in the 1960’s and suddenly it became a tribal battleground. Black kids didn’t want to go to school with whites regardless of what white uberliberals tried to claim. I’ve never heard blacks say they wish they had more diversity when it’s all black. I don’t think they feel blessed to have a white kid sitting next to them. It’s not like the white kid is going to do him any good, make him smarter or something. They don’t want to go to school or work with us, and only want to live in the safe orderly neighborhoods we create, not live with whites.
Separate but equal is fair and a win-win. However, both must be responsible for keeping theirs equal, or building, maintaining and improving it on their own. Start out with identical schools, roads, neighborhood facilities and stores.
Let them thrive in an environment without white people, therefore without racism. And white people can thrive in an area where black behaviors don’t create racism.
Corinne R.,
Florence, AL.
All the time I talk to people who are terrified by the “worst case scenarios” of reaching across racial, religious, and other cultural divides. And I do understand–multiculturalism involves an element of risk, just like LOVE involves risk. But I believe that taking those risks–bridging those gaps–is our only hope for a better world. The suggestion that we not bother trying–now, THAT’S what truly terrifies me.
Ronald Zeigler,
North Brunswick, NJ.
I was stationed at Parris Island going to Personnel school. I was from New York and with my three New Jersey (also Black) friends went into Beaufort, SC. We walked into a bar and my friend said “three beers, please”. I was at the jukebox looking for Motown and finding The Grand Ole Opry. Those six words were what the bartender said…twice. We left, walked down the street and was greeted with wall to wall us, The Four Tops and The Temptations.
Ronnie Savoie,
Gonzales, LA
I’m Cajun (Acadian diaspora settling in Louisiana) and have a tiny percentage of Micmac First Nations people from the 1600s. My maternal grandfather was pretty racist, but is my favorite person of all time, and who imparted to me my love of history, although he only had a fourth grade education. Towards the end of his life, my dad actually expressed remorse for ever supporting segregation when I was little. He said, “That’s the way I was taught it should be, and I really never gave it much thought. I never realized that it made black people’s lives really harder. When I think back on my life, I wish I’d never even spoken in favor of that stuff (segregation).” He was not a politician or anything. Just a pretty smart diesel mechanic who never had the opportunity for higher eductation, despite having the smarts for it.
Dan Ax,
Noblesville, IN.
Jana Everett,
Denver, CO
Studying the creation of race as a concept in the 1500s and its use to justify slavery, colonialism, genocide of indigenous peoples, segregation–is heartbreaking
Alexeana Lopez,
Saint Louis, MO.
Segregation doesn’t always come from white people.
Dan Kelly
San Francisco, CA
I was in a Brooklyn HS in the early 60s and the images coming from the south inspired me to question the social conventions that supported segregation, From that, it was a short jump to questioning foreign policies that justified invading 3rd world countries. College seemed irrelevant and I left it in 1967 to join the anti-war movement as a pacifist, inspired by MLK, Gandhi, and Dorothy Day. I worked with the farmworkers from Delano when they came to NYC for the first grape boycott. I resisted the draft and spent 2 years in prison. Afterward, I joined with 1199 to organize workers at the hospital I worked in. Eventually, I returned to school, became a physician, and was elected to the Board of Education in SF, where I have lived for more than 30 years. None of this would have occurred without the inspiring leadership of King, Bond, Liuzzo, Schwerner, Goodman, Chaney and so many others. Brotherhood is possible and individuals CAN change the world.
Sandy Yarrington,
Wayne State,
St. Clair Shores, MI
I am always amazed at how far we have come, but I am frustrated at how far we have to go. It disturbs me that in many of the classes I have taken, the black people all sit together. The white people sit together. The foreign students sit together. How can we possibly break barriers if we refuse to step out of our comfort zone?
Mike Cruickshank,
England.
As an an Afro person, I feel that the dominant society (people who call themselves White) have subtle and blatant ways to say “You are other”.
Perfect example… These things called micro-agressions are the new way to say ” this is the society. You will always be outsiders, tolerated only”. When it was blatant (segregation), it meant that we HAD to work together as Afro people to prosper. Now that the myth of integration is sold, the achievers move into the dominant society and are swallowed. I am the living example. I love my wife (classified as white), but my Afro culture will be erased in 2 or 3 generations; I’ll be an old faded picture that my children and grandchildren will discuss…
This project is a brilliant way to open the debate properly; maybe people can face the reality of “race relations” in the world.
Emily Mixon,
Austin, TX.
Photo Credit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/w
Eric Fischer Data from Census 2010. Base map © OpenStreetMap, CC-BY-SA
Dr. Deneese L. Jones,
San Antonio, TX.
Trinity University
Race still matters! Even after sixty years past the Brown v. Board decision where the courts mandated: “With all deliberate speed.”,race is still a significant factor in our educational institutions, the criminal justice system, and employment. There are real differences in how different races and ethnicities think and talk about this subject. Millennials struggle to articulate their views on how race and racism operate in their lives. Indeed, a deeper structural understanding of race and racism is something that is completely lost on this generation. And asking narrow questions about race relations and diversity to gauge attitudes toward race is counterproductive to these deeper understandings. Without a doubt, we may have come to these United States in differing boats but we are all in the same boat now where race matters and the struggle continues.
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