The Race Card Project
By Michele Norris
Noah Jay Geneski,
Norfolk, NE
I am a white teenage boy and I have heard countless stories of the discrimination of people with even the slightest change of skin color. These other human beings who should be treated equally and respected are instead treated as stereotypes and characters. I get judged by my personality and overall character, while people with darker skin tones get judged based on their traits they can’t control. It is barbarically unfair.
Iris Nguyen,
Germantown, MD
I am a member of Montgomery College’s “ACES Ambassador Leadership Program” AALP.
Each of our 24 members decided it was important to “voice” our thoughts. As a united team, we wanted to submit them in solidarity.
Stephanie,
Charlotte, NC
I’m Black and Korean. But to many others I’m Mexican. My skin tone, my hair texture, my facial features apparently aren’t Black enough. They’re not Korean enough either. So in order for people to make sense of my appearance, they tell me I’m Mexican. This has caused so much pain and confusion with my racial identity development. Growing up, I always felt like I had to constantly prove that I am Black…that I am Korean. I had to overcompensate my words and actions to prove I belonged to my identities. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become more comfortable with who I am. I correct people when they assume I am Mexican, but it no longer causes me anger or shame.
Andrea Lopez,
Sacramento, CA.
When confronted with the question of whether or not I’ve experienced racism in my life, I always remember the first time I felt discriminated against. I was about twelve years old and I was meeting my best friend’s father for the first time. She moved to California from Georgia with her mother and siblings, her father followed later and in the end he did not stay. I always felt welcome by her family and never even thought about discrimination, so when I met her father I was taken aback by his question. “You Italian, then?”, I immediately understood what he was really asking. I answered “No, I’m Hispanic” but quickly felt the need to validate myself so I offered up the fact that I come from Native American ancestry as well. I suppose I felt the need to let him know that my roots were imbedded in US soil unlike his European ancestors that migrated here. It was a rude awakening for a child and it had lasting effects on me. I was now aware that other people were aware of my skin tone and ethnicity. Even being called “blackie” due to my darker summer tan by the overweight red-headed freckle-faced bully in school did not make me think about race. As an adult I see that the boy who bullied me had insecurity issues of his own, bless his heart. So, it took an adult from the Deep South to rain on my parade, he introduced racism to me and I finally understood what it meant to not be white. My friend’s father ended up moving back to Georgia after a domestic dispute became physical between him and her mother. I was glad he was gone because I never felt comfortable around him, I always knew he disapproved of me. From then on I was always aware of my surroundings and I knew that I would not always be accepted and that I would have to learn to be strong and not let other people’s prejudices interfere with my life. As an adult living in California I rarely experience racism, but I do think about it often, especially when I’m thinking of planning a trip to other states. I research the percentage of the Hispanic population to see if I would be accepted as a visitor and I often worry because my boyfriend is white and some people in different states may not be so welcoming of the two of us. It definitely adds a different perspective to life, I may be free to roam about the country, but will I be accepted?
Cassie C.,
VA
As the child of an interracial couple (which are not just black & white but also Native American) that ended in divorce – and my parents remarried people of similar races – it has been a struggle to truly fit in anywhere. A Sociologist would say I’ve been “socialized” as a southern, middle class, suburban white girl, but my hair, skintone, nose, and lips say otherwise. Growing up with my white mother, stepfather, brother, surrounded by my 99.9% white family, I stood out – and still do. It has always been difficult to date because of this; I’m not white enough for most men, not black enough for most black men’s families. Not white enough for society to see who I really am… but black enough to still get racially profiled when shopping.
Aimee Castro-DiGiovanni,
Scottsdale, AZ.
It’s disappointing to know the color of my skin, in the eyes of others, seems to define me. It doesn’t. My core being isn’t my skin tone. My heart, soul, empathy, and many other things make me who I am. I am very self-aware. Margaret Schneider doesn’t need to give advice on race in this country. She needs to double check her research and resources. I watched her on your PBS Special and could confidently argue every point she attempted to make. She sounded ignorant and statistically inaccurate. It was similar to listen others shaming white people.
John Calvin Miller,
Fairfield, IA.
“Flesh” color crayon: institutionalized racism revealed
These both relate to an incident at U-Tapao Thailand where I served as Race Relations OIC during the Vietnam war. I helped design an embroidered Brotherhood patch for sale to airmen. When it was first being made, I went to the tailor shop to give approval for it. The Caucasian hand on it was too white. I said to the Thai tailor (with tan-colored skin), “Make it more flesh colored.” Hmm…what color is that?
Tony Cunningham,
St. Cloud, MN.
I was going to say “blue,” but that would be a big adjustment. If we were all one race, we’d divide ourselves in other ways, but still, I’d like to make it a little harder to do so.
Karlee Jackson,
Mckinleyville, CA
I’ve never understood race. Is race the color of my skin, my heritage, the way I feel about myself, or what the world tells me I am? Growing up I’ve been placed as a white girl and people believe in privileged; however, the color of my skin isn’t my story. Just because someone is a specific skin tone on the outside that doesn’t mean its who they are. Nowadays a lot of us are mixed, a lot of us are judged, and a lot of us aren’t even judged by our skin, but rather our sexuality. People are beautiful and amazingly different. Our skin tone, sexuality, background, and race isn’t who I am, it isn’t my story. I’m Karlee and that’s really all that matters.
Elijah L Wheeler,
Gaithersburg, MD.
I’m a big Black man that can feel the fear of others as I enter their spaces, yet I also hear and am told of their amazement of my aesthetic. My muscles, my skin tone, my voice…as if their “amazement” is envious, jeaolous and hateful all at once…
Atong Majok,
Salt Lake City, UT.
Being from Sudan, a country with a seemingly-infinite number of spoken languages and dialects, I still find it baffling that many white Americans think they can “know” something about a person merely by looking at their skin tone…
Hilary Salazar,
McAllen, TX.
I attended a middle school with only seven Hispanics/Latinos. One day during 2nd period, the librarian called all seven of us over the intercom to come to the library. I had no idea why, but everyone laughed as I walked out of class. I got to the library along with the other students to find out the librarian had ordered the very first set of Spanish books. She wanted a picture of the seven of us pretending to read them for a picture to put up in the hallway. I let her know that I didn’t know how to read in Spanish, and she ignored me and snapped a photo anyway. Walking back to class, I felt wronged but couldn’t process my feelings. When I got back to class, the first question I was asked was, “So did you all eat tacos?” Those would be the beginning of a long process for me to sort out the feelings I had about my heritage. As a middle-schooler in a school where I wasn’t noticed for my academic achievements, but rather for my skin tone, being Hispanic was difficult. As an adult, being Hispanic is something I am proud of.
My 6 word memoir is about my family because I am Mexican, but my cousins are black and Mexican. Most of my family is Mexican because my mom’s side is all Mexican and so is my dad’s side. But on my mom’s side I have black cousins. Some experiences I’ve had with racism is when Donald Trump said mean things about Mexico and how they are bad people. I also had an experience with race and racism when someone said, “Hey are you from China?,” and they said because I squint a lot and I was really offended by that when I heard that. If you’re wondering what my ethnicity is, it is hispanic. In my neighborhood there are lots of people that are hispanic and I feel like that’s why they put a police station near my home because they feel like it is a very dangerous neighborhood. But in Balboa Park it’s a peaceful place and I almost never see a police car there or never hear a siren but I kind of almost hear mostly sirens because there is a hospital near bye. I used to think that there were a lot of police in my neighborhood because there was a lot of homeless by the train station but now I think I know why. I think the police feel our neighborhood is dangerous because lots of latinos and hispanics live there. I don’t think it’s very dangerous though because it is peaceful with lots of people minding their own business. In my culture everybody in my neighborhood would put dia de los muerto decorations because almost everybody there was hispanic and so do we put up decorations. My family is also christian and we believe in god but we don’t really go to church any more like we used to. We do celebrate christmas though because it brings us a lot of joy. We also celebrate this holiday called, ¨Los Reyes Magos,¨ which is a holiday similar to christmas. I am actually black from my mom’s side. My dad’s side of the family is one hundred percent Mexican. So that means that I am 99% Mexican because the majority of my family is Mexican and 1% black because I have only one set of cousins that are black.
RACE is NOT REAL
Race is not real. According to psychlologytoday.com “Race is real but, not in the way we think because race is only something that people think exists because people have different skin colors or look differently.” Also according to them there is only one race and it is called Homo sapiens. I think that race should be something that separates you not by how you look but by the way you act. Martin Luther King Jr. said people should be judged not by the color of their skin but the content of their character. This evidence proves that race is something that was socially made not scientifically discovered. Although race isn’t real, racism is because people sometimes do offend other people that have a different skin tone. We are the same because we are all one human species so that means we are all equal, we just look different.
Alyce Gatlin,
Seattle, WA.
I like to put the “unity” in community. I want to listen, listen, and listen to people. Together we can find our commonalities and learn about our differences.
There is no discussion between us and them … only WE can have a conversation.
R.E.A.L. Talk,
High Tech Middle Media Arts,
7th Grade Trailblazer
It has always confused me when people call others “white”, or “black”, because no one’s skin is “black”, or “white”. Besides, no one names their kids the color of their skin, so why do we call them that? In the past I have made myself feel guilty because someone once told me that I was Hitler’s version of “pure” and “perfect, ”blonde hair, blue eyes. I also feel responsible, and feel that I have to be racist because throughout most of history, I would be what was thought of as the “superior race”. When I was in 4th grade someone told me that I was racist because me and all my friends were “white”. I thought that meant that I had to be friends with other “races” just to prove that I was not racist even if I had nothing in common with them and didn’t get along with them. I have now learned that I should be friends with people because they are what I look for in a friend and “race” has nothing to do with friendship.
Race doesn’t exist, but racism does
Race is NOT real, yet it could mean life or death for someone. According to Vox, an American news website, “There isn’t a race chromosome our DNA that people can point to it simply doesn’t exist, this of course does not mean that the concept of race isn’t hugely important in our lives”. Although race is not scientifically and biologically real it can affect someone’s life greatly. Evidence from the American Anthropological Association says that “Physical variations in the human species have no meaning except the social ones humans put on them”. Therefore if humans hadn’t made these categories there would be no race or racism. “During the 19th century people used “race” to justify the retention of slavery”. This means that race was created so that certain people could have power over others and get free labor. Proving that racism created race because of the human hunger for power and categories. Although race does not biologically exist, unfortunately since we made these “racial categories,” racism does. So let’s end this social construct that we created for power, because we are one race… The human race!
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