slavery Archives - The Race Card Project

Misreading slavery due to modern morals.

January 22, 2025January 23, 2025 African American literature, brave, folklore, march, Milwaukee, MLK, modern, morals, Rikki Clark, Selma, slavery, students, Suffragists, teacher, University, WI

Rikki Clark,
Milwaukee, WI.

I teach African-American literature and folklore at the university level. Often white students will say in class how they would have never owned slaves. But there is a fundamental problem when we view history through a twenty-first-century lens. Our modern morals and values are out of context. I would hope, if I had been in South, that I would have been brave enough to stand up for the freedom of all humans, but I don’t know if I would have been that enlightened or that strong. Would I have been brave enough to march with the Suffragists or with MLK, Jr. in Selma? Human rights are violated all the time; slavery still exists in the world. We need to acknowledge our collective wrongs, celebrate those who survived, and understand our history in order to learn compassion. Once we can do that, then we can look around us and try to right the injustice that is happening right now to ourselves, our neighbors, and to mankind.

Confederate flags everywhere. Scares me immensely.

August 20, 2024August 20, 2024 being black, Branson, Confederate flag, flag, Kitra Mwania, MO, nervous, scared, slavery, South

Kitra Mwania,
Branson, MO.

The confederate flag clearly means something important to the people around here. Being a black person who learned that this flag represented slavery and injustice makes me nervous about why this flag is an accessory.

So many tears thinking about slavery

January 19, 2024 all people, MN, slavery, Stillwater, tears

Celinda Ann Doyle,
Stillwater, MN

I mean slavery of all skin shades.

I don’t understand, lets love instead

December 5, 2023December 5, 2023 history, keep score, KY, love, Megan, slavery, understand

Megan,
KY.

Where to start. I have no clue. I guess I’ll start with some background about myself. I am a person full of love and I give it to anyone it doesn’t matter to me race, income, your past, how you treat me – what have you. If I ever get to the point of being your friend will get to know YOU for YOU (even if I don’t I am still nice – it makes people sick sometimes lol) and some how in this world hate seems to resonates from the hearts of people around the world. I try to remain very optimistic and happy at all cost and look to uplift others.

TO REALLY START: I had a friend post a status about history – slavery, someone I went to school with when we were younger and had no issue (hope to still not have any), but the gist of the comments in the status as to what his girlfriend was saying is that because I am “white” (which I guess to they eye that’s what I am) I am a horrible person because “my people” created the issue. That’s fine because honestly we are entitled to our opinion. I am one AGAIN not to look at the past I WORRY about the now. To proceed, by looking at me you wouldn’t know I have Native American in my blood. The first to really be oppressed/ European-ized, the whole Thanksgiving thing.

I don’t pay close attention to history TO KEEP SCORE. I educate myself (I guess the basics really – I don’t like fights, arguments or war like things – even though I do respect sacrifices made by anyone) to know what not to let happen again. ANYWAYS it confused me why this girl would say that? She doesn’t know me (I am a person who plays “devils” advocate as they call it – but a more angelic view & way. I can usually see both sides/ views AND am very empathetic), still I was like “God [bringing in my beliefs (which I also do NOT judge) to try an prove a point], wants us to love one another. We are brothers and sisters. Society likes to separate us, the MEDIA likes to separate us, but really we are all the same – just a different hue, different hearts, and different lives. We need to come together to get away from the negativity to make a positive change.” In which she proceeded to say, “we are not sisters don’t you dare compare me to you. Media doesn’t separate us, that’s a lie” and just other things insulting my intelligence. I just could not believe what I was reading. How this view of hers to me was so closed off. That she was hurting inside by the past that I personally did not create. I so badly wanted to help her see my view and to get her away from that hateful view.

This is 2016 not the 1900’s. I’m not saying to ignore history I am saying to hold on to it in a different view. It doesn’t need to fuel hate, or separate us. It is to educate us and to keep it from repeating it. One of my history teachers ALWAYS said History is needed in this world. Things are bound to repeat itself. It’s up to us to learn the history and make sure it doesn’t happen again. I just don’t like being looked at for my so called “ancestors” (IF, BIG BIG BIG BIG IF the people who caused where even remotely involved those hateful events) which again I have Native American in my blood and I know I am MIXED with many other things. I just don’t know my genealogy and don’t care too (If I had to guess wanna think Italian. I talk with my hands a lot. Haha.). Because I am an individual of now – not my family’s “ancestors”. To me I DON’T see the “past” which isn’t even MY PAST per say. Mine began in 1995, hello. I see the people as to how I know them, in the now.

TO ME (it’s okay if your view is different I still respect you tremendously) God is Love and I try my best to make him happy through my work. I let Gods love show through me. In which I wish others could see better, could the the beauty and the love I have to offer. BUT I am not everyone else and you can never get people to see the way you do, but how you treat them and everyone else can give them a glimpse.

I hope I did not offend anyone like the way I did that young lady, but if I do I apologize. But this is where I stand and it’s okay for people to have a different view than you. IT IS GOING TO BE OKAY!

Stay loving, humble and kind. Always, ALWAYS forgive.
Much love everyone!

Stop Living In A Distorted Past

October 13, 2022 distorted past, equality, Moonlight Lady, NC, Piedmont Triad, racism, slavery

Moonlight Lady,
Piedmont Triad, NC

I am white, and I am sick and tired of African Americans who continually live in the past, and shove their distorted and many times incorrect atrosities onto white generations of today. Blacks in America are doing nothing but continuing to divide the races by trying to inflict unfair blame upon whites who have had ZERO to do with slavery, past racisms, or past mistakes made by a HANDFUL of mean spirited whites. If you blacks REALLY look at history in a truthful way, you will find MANY whites who have tremendously helped blacks to have equality. Equality in education, social equality, healthcare, and housing. My word if you can’t make it in today’s America that has been practically handed to you on a silver platter, what on earth is your gripe? Stop blaming current whites for predicaments from decades ago that we had NOTHING to do with and certainly don’t condone. You have been given MANY opportunities to succeed. If you do not succeed, it would be your own fault and WORK, STUDY, DEDICATION, FAITH, and SOBRIETY are key elements to American success. You are a broken record living in the past. Make your own future and stop looking back.

Lizzie’s Journey from Plantation to Farm

June 23, 2022June 23, 2022 A Slave Family's Journey to Freedom, CA, Farm, grandparents, Lizzie's Story, Michelle Hill, Oakland, plantation, slavery

Michelle Hill,
Oakland, CA.

Our family is so fortunate that my great, great, great grandparents were not separated from each other and their children during slavery. Because the family stayed together, we have a family Bible, pictures and records that document their lives in this country. My great grandmother, Mama Lizzie, was born in 1870 to a slave girl who was raped by her former master. Slavery had ended, but the freed slaves were still living on the plantation because they had nowhere to go. Mama Lizzie’s life spanned 94 years from the end of slavery to the mid-20th century; from a family of slaves to a family of land owners. She and my cousin Mary shared a room for 18 years in the family’s farmhouse. Mama Lizzie passed the family stories on to my cousin. Cousin Mary wrote Lizzie’s Story: A Slave Family’s Journey to Freedom to document the challenges, persistence, perseverance, ingenuity and strength of our ancestors. As African-Americans, we have been given a rare gift to know our family genealogy and heritage as far back as 1850. http://www.amazon.com/Lizzies-Story-Familys-Journey-Freedom/dp/0759699208

Just want credit it is due.

June 21, 2022June 21, 2022 Ancestors, Beachwood, blame, credit, internal struggle, Jasmine Shabazz, Minority, Ohio, pain, Play the Race Card, Puerto Rico, Saudi Arabia, slavery, speak out, struggle, tight knit, white

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.

Slavery never really ended. Just repurposed.

June 6, 2022June 10, 2022 Black Codes, Coach Rob, Constitution, George Floyd, Jim Crow, loophole, Mass Incarceration, slavery

Coach Rob

The Constitution never really abolished slavery, anything with a loophole, never closes the loop. (Black Codes, Jim Crow, Mass Incarceration, George Floyd.) How can something be abolished if the remnants still exist?

Race is not a race

May 17, 2022May 17, 2022 abuse, discrimination, escape, FL, history, holocaust, majority, Miami, Minority, slavery, Vero Korbenfeld, wars

Vero Korbenfeld,
Miami, FL

More often than not, minorities are running a race against each other, to see who wins the “most tragic history” ribbon. Who is more deserving of equality. In some way or another, most of us come from a history of wars, holocaust, slavery, escape, discrimination, abuse, you name it…
It is time for race to stop being a race with one another. Everyone is worthy of equal opportunities. Race is a race we win together. When minorities work together, we become the majority.

Don’t hate me for being white

March 17, 2022March 17, 2022 Civil War, conductor, Hector, Martha McKinney, NY, Quaker, slavery, South, underground railroad

Martha McKinney,
Hector, NY

My Quaker great-great grandfather was a conductor on the Underground Railroad in PA; my Quaker great grandfather fought against slavery in the Civil War; my Quaker forebears refused to buy pretty southern cloth because it was made by enslaved people. Precious stories came down the generations. I want so much to engage in healing conversations, yet I sometimes feel a barricade. Please don’t assume I’m a closet racist because I’m white.

My history is only slavery! Why!

October 2, 2021October 21, 2021 Fayetteville, history, King Kellz, learn, NC, school, slavery, taught, teach

King Kellz,
Fayetteville, NC.

We only learn what America has taught us about our specific race.

Social construction to maintain white dominance

March 10, 2021January 9, 2022 1500's, CO, colonialism, creation of race, Denver, dominance, Genocide, indigenous people, Jana Everett, segregation, slavery, social construct

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

Be yourself Everyone Else is Taken

March 9, 2021 be yourslef, cracker, first experience, honky, ID, Idaho Falls, Kristine Knowles, slavery, South, white

Kristine Knowles,
Idaho Falls, ID

I’m a 56-year-old woman from the south and racism is worse now, by far than in my youth. Although being called, Cracker, Honky, White, etc never really affected me being told often that I am racist has. Slavery has been around since the dawn of man. The rest of the world has moved on, why don’t you

Mimi, you could have owned me.

January 16, 2021December 16, 2021 Bleeding Kansas, Mary Crabtree, OH, owned, slave, slavery, underground railroad, Wooster

Mary Crabtree,
Wooster, OH

This is what my 6 year old bi-racial granddaughter said to me this summer. We had read a picture book about one of my personal heroes, Harriet Tubman, and I was explaining slavery to her. She rubbed her arm, which is a lovely tone of brown, and then my slightly tanned white arm, and recognized that I am white, and she is brown. She looked at me and said, “Mimi, you could have owned me.” I was speechless! I am from “Bleeding Kansas” a proud free state, and currently live in Ohio, one of the bastions of the Underground Railroad. I’m a lifelong free-stater, have always believed in equality of all people, and this just took my breath away. She’s very bright, so I had to face this, and discuss it with her. I had to talk about the issues “back then,” and the issues “now” that people of color face. She said, “Oh, I know you would not be mean, Mimi, but some people are, I hear them at school, but it doesn’t bother me….I’m a beautiful brown girl, right?” Of course she’s beautiful, and she’s brown…but I began to wonder….isn’t she JUST beautiful? Can she be a beautiful girl…because that’s how I always thought of her…as my beautiful granddaughter…her color or race, has never mattered…and frankly, still doesn’t!

I’m white my daughter is black

December 7, 2020December 7, 2020 2012, 4 years old, adopted, black daughter, Family, Farmington Hills, friends, Grandma, Haiti, Jennifer Berkemeier, MI, non-traditional, origin, painful, Race, single mom, slavery, white

Jennifer Berkemeier,
Farmington Hills, MI.

I’m a single mom. I adopted my daughter from Haiti in 2012 when she was 4 years old. I’m white, and 15 years older than most of her friends’ moms. We get a lot of stares and unwelcome comments from little kids (“Is she your grandma?” “How come you’re different colors?” “She can’t be your mom…she’s white”). We love each other. We talk about race, her origin, being white and black, and being a non-traditional family. I’m teaching her to embrace it and be proud of it. It’s strange and painful to teach someone about slavery when you’re white and she’s black.

Studying slavery makes me feel ashamed.

November 9, 2020January 5, 2021 ashamed, Ashville, NC, Sam Henry, slavery, Social Studies, teacher

Sam Henry,
Ashville, NC.

As a white male Social Studies teacher I always have a difficult time teaching slavery. From what I know about my family tree I don’t have any family members that owned slaves but that is hardly the point. It is a shameful period in our history but one worth studying. I want my 8th grade students to know the truth.

Racism runs light, medium, and dark

October 7, 2020 Ancestors, campus, dark, IA, KKK, light, medium, North High School, racism, Sioux City, slavery, Tori Carter, Western Iowa Tech Community College

Tori Carter,
Sioux City, IA

My name is Tori, and I am a senior at North High School. I am dual-enrolled at Western Iowa Tech Community College. I was assigned to create a race card, and this project got me thinking. When you hear the word “racism”, you think of slavery, internment camps, or the Ku Klux Clan, all committed by Caucasians. Although, who considers the hatred modern-day Americans face because of their ancestors’ past? Racism has no color.