The Race Card Project
By Michele Norris
Kaitlyn Lopez,
San Jose, CA
I chose these six words because I think people often make assumptions about others based on race or appearance before actually getting to know them.
Looking at the Race Card Project showed me how race can affect people’s experiences in different ways. It reminded me that listening and understanding others is important instead of judging quickly.
Penny Shaff Altman,
Portland, ME.
My father told me stories drawn from his childhood in the Ukraine. My mother told me stories about her life growing up as a Jewish immigrant. I told stories to my children. I tell them to my grandchildren. My youngest grandson’s great grandmother is famous for her stories of Gullah Gitchee and West African heritage and the history of her island. We are richer for being part of different stories.
If we share the same stories and mix our colors, we will be one.
Susan Nickason,
Penfield, NY.
Listening to the news this evening about the Charleston shooting, I hear “what harms our neighbor, harms us”
This speaks to me as it wasn’t even 2 months ago that I left Kemmerer, WY, under the cover of darkness because of the harassment and inexcusable behavior that seemed, well, normal. To them. A state that prides itself on equality.
While I was only there a year and some odd days, I quickly learned the values of Mormon speak, which was loud and in my face about my differences. I learned that God, while he was very present in almost all conversations, did not protect my kind as I was, am and always will be a sinner. I learned how officers of the law, who are supposedly held to a higher standard, nodded their often familiar bobble heads saying, they would keep watch. Yet, dead animals were still put on my porch, air was let out of my tires among other things and the night I left was harassed by two women who let me know of their intentions by keeping a gun in plain view of my sight. What did the police do? They patted them on the back and said, go home. Each time they came by house.
Knowing how small the town is, of course it was gossip by the next morning, and yet the Chief only made a call to me after he got a report from a community member saying it happened. Not that he was being updated that night by his officers the entire time it was transpiring.
It’s these moments that a community has the opportunity to stand up and say enough is enough. But instead they stayed silent, and when the city council who is supposedly leadership of the community, as they are voted in to be representatives were questioned, they said, we didn’t do anything wrong.
Your silence and doing nothing, is plenty…
While I share a summary of my story, there are so many others that have their own stories. Stories of how this land of the free home of the brave, has simply; Forgotten.
I watch my fb feed fill with intellectual discussions of how to come together and begin this exchange that has been pushed aside by mainstream media, because it’s hard and they are trying to avoid – the anger…
And I will say it for no one else but me, the anger will never go away. And the more these sensationalized stories about how these race related situations are not really about race, makes me even angrier. However, it is in my anger that I find logic that the only way to start fixing these problems is to start talking about a plan, to have a future that begins with admitting, we have a f****** problem.
I’m ready, are you?
Anonymous
Ann Arbor, MI
David Brady,
Portland, OR.
Travel to see new cultures and experiences? I do. But, we can experience the richness of culture here if we look past appearance. Listen, let others’ stories speak.
Meghen,
CA
I’ve been babysitting for my current family for about a year and a half now, and I’ve heard of and been present for stories in that time on being Black in a predominantly white neighborhood. One of the first and better chats was my 10 year-old getting excited about moving as she would have a chance at a teacher who looks like her. Being a white woman primarily taught by white women and men growing up, I’d never experienced how it might have felt to not have had others outside my family look like me in my formative years. She, her mother, and I have also had conversations about representation in Marvel and Disney films, the questions/stares both daughters get when they braid their hair, and many more.
Corazon Johnston
Aspen X
Beyond the fact that ink is pigment we use to write on paper, skin color creates circumstances of people’s lives. Some try to use other’s pigment count, like body count, the darker, the more criminal. Others who are the victims of such persecution make the best story or the worst story out of the circumstances they’ve been given. As a writer I see how circumstances and character drives dictate the outcome of stories. Pigment is a circumstantial “strategy” that drives plot.
Rose Collins,
Syracuse, NY.
Highschool Student ’16
I believe that if we don’t appreciate our differences or acknowledge the fact that we are all different, then we will repeat the prejudice and pain we’ve seen in our past. We all have different stories and cultures, and if we don’t acknowledge that then we will be forced to see the unfair treatment of people from our world’s history repeated in the coming generation.
Sarah Lee
San Francisco, CA
My family’s migration stories trace back only two generations, but as a second generation Chinese American, I am often unaware of the struggles and hardships my grandparents went through before living in North America. What I have found most interesting as I’ve uncovered some of these migration stories is that, now I am more connected with the current migration stories today–the stories and people who will be most affected by immigration reform laws in the U.S. I have been wondering what kind of partnership and voice Chinese Americans have with other communities who face discrimination because they are recent immigrants. In uncovering lost stories, I believe that people can increase their empathy, to see immigrants beyond the legal/illegal label, and to see each other as migrants, who share common dreams and struggles in their movements.
Ethan Flechner,
Milwaukee, WI
I’m a white man and I act very differently then most white people I see in stories and on the news. I act differently then most people I see. My race doesn’t automatically mean that I’m going to be formal or what white people are generically showed as. Throughout your life the way you act changes by how you feel, what you’ve gone through and how you dealt with it. I live in Milwaukee, a very segregated city. My neighborhood I full of people mostly of Hispanic heritage. It’s a very bad neighborhood, garbage, gunshots. It’s not the best. Even though I grew up there I don’t act how other people who grew there did. Many people in my neighborhood, even though they are mostly all the same race act so differently. I grew up dealing with so much, anxiety, stress, depression, and self harm. I was a horrible problem solver, and still am. Going through that and solving it gave me a very dark humor. I make jokes that would be deemed offensive to many. I’m usually kind as long as I’m not being weird saying stuff that most people would go “His parents must be disappointed.” I’ve grown up and realized that race doesn’t define the way you act but the way you’ve grown up and how you deal with everything does.
Sarah Martin,
Wichita, KS.
Perhaps this is my artistic side coming out, but when you paint a human being, they are not painted simply using white or black. No, they are painted with a wide variety of colors that blend together to make a beautiful picture. Too often people separate persons into categories that divide and isolate rather than celebrate their unique individual beauty and culture. My hope is not that people become color blind but rather that they appreciate the diversity of colors, experiences, and stories that make human beings beautiful.
Bobbi Josephine Smith,
Spokane, WA.
We could learn a lot from others if we only took the time to get know them.
Steve Hammond,
Oberlin, OH.
The first time I heard the phrase white privilege was at our dining room table. The kids were catching us up with their day at school and I was a bit surprised by something one of the kids had done that involved managing to never go to one of her classes that day. I asked her how she was able to manage that. The answer was white privilege. My daughters talked about all the things they could to do at school to bend the rules that Black kids would never be allowed to do. It was just a fact of life that my kids knew about, but I didn’t. Well, I didn’t have to think very long to realize I knew all about white privilege, but I had never put a name to it. Part of that was because I never had to put a name to it. I was just the way it was and it was working to my advantage.
It was helpful to hear my kids talking about white privilege because it helped me to start understanding it more clearly when I heard Black folk talking about it. Along the way I was able to get less defensive about white privilege and begin to understand its implications for everybody. And I’ve also realized that it is really important to just simply listen to peoples’ stories about how white privilege functions in our country.
Heather Melberg,
Renton, WA.
I am born and raised in Seattle. Lived in Japan my junior year of high school. Fascinated with all races and cultures and our stories of now and the past.
Dianne Goodwin Brant,
Cambria, CA.
My Dad used to travel to South Carolina in the late 50s-early 60s. He told me of the segregated bathrooms, water fountains, etc. I cried myself to sleep at the injustice. Things are changing, but not enough to suit me yet.
Kacie
Vancouver, WA
I grew up in a very white area of the U.S. and still at 23 years old, I’ve had very few friends of different races or lifestyles. Only within the last year have I learned a lot about a different race (Hispanic culture, particularly Mexican) and it has been the most eye opening year. I believe we need to share our stories more.
Kunal
Fremont, CA
Sometimes, the internet is the only way to get a fair hearing without the prejudice.
Subscription to our newsletter open soon.
Indulge in timeless elegance with our hand-curated collection of luxury vintage men’s fashion. From classic suits to iconic accessories, our online store offers a premium shopping experience for the modern gentleman who appreciates quality and style. Shop now and elevate your wardrobe with our carefully selected pieces that celebrate the art of craftsmanship and heritage fashion.
