The Race Card Project
By Michele Norris
Eb,
Rowlett, TX.
I am a black woman and I am already missing the summertime. I love to go to a local swimming pool (and yes I will get my hair wet!) in the middle of a Texas summer. I have a naturally kinky, curly and thick afro and there is nothing relaxing on a hot day than a swim. I love my hair as much as the next woman but I have always had the mentality that my hair will not keep me from doing anything I want to do.
🙂
Danielle ,
Submitted via Twitter: @perfectlygdkids.
Jim Michonski,
Virginia Beach, VA.
I grew up in a military family. The March on Washington happened when I was two years old. We mostly lived outside of the US until I was nine. I don’t have memories of and was not exposed to the racial turmoil of the 1960’s. One of the strongest experiences that gave me insight into what it meant to be black happened a couple years after moving back to the States. The community I lived in had no public pools. The only pool available for the civilian community was part of a social club. The club was for the most part segregated. At that time there was no explicit discriminatory racial policy but it seemed implied. Membership dues kept most people from joining.
My father coached and played sports. One year at the end of the baseball season he had a pool party for the baseball all-stars on the military base where he worked. The social club pool was not available in part, I believe, because there would be black boys attending the party. One black boy, a very athletic and talented ball player, who was also very polite and well liked, decided he would dive off the board on the deep end of the pool. He did this once or twice. We didn’t notice that as he jumped his momentum carried him to the shallow end where he could touch bottom. He couldn’t swim but we didn’t notice. A little later he dove again. This time he took too steep an angle and didn’t make it to the shallow end. He started flailing in the water. Several adults, including my father, jumped in to save him. In the aftermath I learned why he couldn’t swim. The reason was segregation and discrimination concerning public pools. We almost lost a great kid because there was no place for him to learn how to swim. I was introduced to racial discrimination in deeply personal and scary way. A peer almost drowned because of it. I also learned there are many of all races that found ways to get around the ingrained racial culture of the community.
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To me race is just a made up way to put people in groups, based on the way they look. When did that start to matter? Stereotypes, Racism, Segregation, Slaves, and Wars. Stereotypes are a big part of race and racism. The following are the most common stereotypes for Black people. Blacks` are know to not know how to swim. Blacks are from the ghetto. Blacks all have afros or not done hair. All Black Women are sassy, angry, and loud. Black dudes are super violent by nature. Black people need White people to save them.
It really hurts to think people don’t know the truth about who I really am. Stereotypes really hurt people, I have experience with it many times, I get very hurt thinking that’s what people think about me. Just look at the Doll test. I think that people never really learned the truth about race. In class we busted the myth of race. RACE IS FAKE.
Race is Nothing to Change our Nation
Race is not real. Race is the classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, ancestry, genetics and lifestyle. Well that’s what people used to think. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) “All humans belong to the same species and that ‘race’ is not a biological reality but a myth.” When the European settlers/explorers came to america they saw people who didn’t look like the others. I bet you’re thinking well race came first. The settlers decided they were more superior which created racism and then race afterward. Think of it as if you were looking at an ants and you naturally squish the ants most people do. There is no way to tell a person’s “race”, not by skin color hair color or eye color. Race is not Real. Still don’t think so do some research, look it up. Many people would agree with me.
CP,
Garland, TX.
I’m frustrated. Very much so. There is a lot of hypocrisy and cognitive dissonance, especially within my race – Caucasian. I wish so much for everyone to open their eyes, minds, and hearts to the plight of others. To recognize that the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s didn’t eradicate the inherent racism or the inherent oppression. As an example, it’s “common knowledge” that “blacks don’t know how to swim.” But they don’t think for a moment about how the members of the black community were BANNED from using swimming pools for a long time. Once they were allowed to share pools, the white folks up and left – they didn’t want black men sharing the same water as their white women. It’s frustrating that people who lived during that time, who experienced the hatred and racism of that time (including some who were down in the lower states where Jim Crow ruled), don’t see it. I feel like I’m walking up hill in sand…but I’m going to keep trudging along. Maybe I’ll make it to the peak one day.
シドニー
Submitted via Twitter: @_sxdni
Ngina wa Kaai
Canada
While this wasn’t said to me directly, it was said by a white coworker to a child of Indian heritage while teaching them swimming. It was a stupid thing to say, but it made me think about the fact that there were numerous swim instructors of colour on our staff (including myself) and what she thought of our ability to teach.
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