Wilmington Archives - The Race Card Project

Much progress; much more to do

August 8, 2024August 9, 2024 Charcoal Pit, Charlestown, Chester County, DE, DuPont, MA, Negroes, PA, progress, Robert Markel, Wilmington

Robert Markel,
Charlestown, MA.

Raised in a very white town in Chester County Pennsylvania, I had little consciousness of race issues until high school. We had one black student in my class, and he was the Salutatorian. At the end of our senior year at Archmere Academy, several members of the class went to lunch together at the Charcoal Pit in Wilmington, Delaware. Shortly after we sat down, the manager, whom I knew very well, came up and asked me to step away for a talk. He informed me that the restaurant which I had patronized dozens of times did not serve “Negroes.” We were shocked. As it happened, V.P. Joe Biden who was one of our classmates was with us at the restaurant. I relayed the message to the group; we sat there embarrassed looking at each other; and Joe said, “let’s get out of here.” We left. I did not return for many years.

In the summer of 1963, I had a summer job at the DuPont Company’s Chestnut Run plant outside Wilmington. I worked as a laborer in shipping and receiving brooming floors and breaking down packages. The Black man who worked with me had two years of college and was a minister in Wilmington. I wondered why he was working as a laborer when he seemed educated and qualified for a better job. One day he told me that DuPont had a policy of not allowing Blacks to take the exam for a white collar “desk job.” I was astonished.

That summer, DuPont changed its policies and liberalized employment practices. My friend was allowed to take the test, and he moved up to a better job in the main offices. In August, DuPont excused any employee who wanted to attend the March on Washington. I called my friend Pete McLaughlin, and we decided to go.

We made our way to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and sat there to hear Dr. King and other speakers. There is a film that I saw at the Kennedy Library in Boston that shows a sea of Black people on the steps and two white boys sitting on the steps. Pete and I did not pay much attention to most of the speakers, but when Dr. King began to speak, we were transfixed by his words and his magnificent speaking style.

Unforgettable experience.

What’s the point when color fades

October 4, 2022October 4, 2022 Color, control, die, dirt, divide, earth, fades, longlasting, NC, Spencer, superficial, Wilmington

Spencer,
Wilmington, NC.

Everyone dies. And when we do die, there will be no color, just bones and dirt. It’s funny that race is so important when it doesn’t last forever. We only have a short time on the earth and yet we spend so much time dividing ourselves based on something superficial, that no one has control over.

I’m white, is that really important?

August 9, 2021August 9, 2021 DE, important, Sharon Cargill Pyle, white, Wilmington

Sharon Cargill Pyle,
Wilmington, DE

Perception equals reality – OPEN YOUR EYES!

July 28, 2021July 28, 2021 DE, enlightenment, equality, hope, Juvenile Detention Center, Kathy Devine-Henry, MLK, Open your eyes, perception, poverty, reality, Smyrna, Wilmington

Kathy Devine-Henry,
Smyrna, DE.

Prior to my twenty-seventh birthday, my eyes were not completely open. Up until this point I believed that Martin Luther King Jr. had solved all the race issues in our country and equality for all was the law of the land.
Then I began teaching at a Juvenile Detention Center in Wilmington, Delaware. It was very obvious that the majority of the students housed there were students of color. For many years I struggled with this state of affairs.
Now it is clear to me that poverty and misperceptions continue to foster the unequal treatment of our most vulnerable group, our children. My hope is that we all work to shed light on why certain children’s lives are not valued as much as others and build new perceptions, thus new realities, through this enlightenment.

I’m only allowed to be white

September 20, 2020February 21, 2021 12, accent, American, Carrie Hunsinger, College, DE, descent, Detroit, Dutch, first experience, Half, Holland, immigrant, school, Speak English, Syrian, white, Wilmington

Carrie Hunsinger,
Wilmington, DE.

I am a 1/2 first generation American. My Mother is American (Detroit) and my father is Dutch (Holland). He’s been here almost 60 years and he still speaks with a heavy Dutch accent and therefore I speak English with a bit of a Dutch accent.
When 9/11 happened I was in college in Newark, NJ. I remember talking about the events in class afterwards and getting yelled at by a Syrian girl during a class because I was talking about my fear of seeing backlash attacks in NJ. From her view I couldn’t know what it was like to be immigrant’s kid in America, because I was white, and could not have immigrant parents. A few days later cops pulled my father over on the highways with a bunch of other people because they were looking for terrorists driving mini-vans and he fit the description since he was tan and had an accent.
I have lost count of how many times I been told that being Dutch and being white is the same thing. That all of the western part of Europe is the same. I’ve been told being of European descent, especially being Dutch, automatically makes both racist and more at fault for slavery then other white people because of the Dutch slaves ships. Also, as I am constantly being mistaken for being German, I have been blamed for the Holocaust as well. I am not allowed to be a Dutch-American, or even a European-American. I don’t normally even see Caucasian listed anymore on forms. I am definitely not allowed to understand immigrant issues or what it’s like to be the first in your family to graduate college, or to have a family that overcame hardships and poverty to find the American Dream. I am not allowed to not be at fault for this country’s past (or Europe’s involvement) even though I learned in school along with all the other immigrants kids. I am part of the problem and at the same time, I’m told there’s nothing I can do help be part of the solution because as a white person, I am the problem.

Wish I had changed my name!

June 26, 2020 DE, Jamika Richardson, name, Wilmington

Jamika Richardson,
Wilmington, DE

My name is often used to judge me! ”Where are you from?” ”what does your name mean?”

Not Blind, Just Free of Hate.

April 11, 2019April 11, 2019 NC, Sarah M. Rebillard, Wilmington

Sarah M. Rebillard,
Wilmington, NC

I will never say that I am blind to the skin color of others, nor that I don’t see them as different from myself. A person’s perceived race is a fact of their existence and their reality and is a trait to be loved not ignored. People of color deserve to be heard for their struggles in a society so focused on “whiteness”, and congratulated for their perseverance in the face of prejudice.

Some Dogs Just Don’t Have Names

February 19, 2019February 19, 2019 Black, cows, dog, friends, Glenn Richardson, Mississippi, name, NC, white, Wilmington

Glenn Richardson
Wilmington, NC

Every spring we would travel from Washington DC to Oktoc Mississippi to help my Dad work the cows. He had about 200 head to push through the mucky shoot to the cattle squeeze where they were tested for brucelllosis, wormed, weighed, pregnancy checked by an arm length plastic disposable glove to the uterus and branded if they were yearlings. The young bulls were made into steers so they could eat a years worth of grass and be sent to sale. The work was dangerous, tough and would take all day. Charles, Terry, and Terry’s cousins, all young black men would come and help. We would break lunch for a slow cooked pork shoulder my mother had cooked all night long and barbecue sauce bought from the barbeque place in Starkville. Charles, Terrie and I would reminisce about younger days getting chased by bulls and talk about their dreams and there families. This trip home my sister in law from England had come to help. She couldn’t get over the arm length plastic disposable gloves. Thought they would be a fashion hit back in England. Charles had two runt dogs we were throwing scraps to and my sister in law says “hey Charles, what are your dogs’ names?” Charles hesitated and thought for a while and then said “ Well Mam, some dogs just don’t have names.” We were boyhood friends who spent many hours together working and playing . His mother made me a yellow and white quilt I still have today. We would visit his mother when we went to the farm and she had photographs of us in the glass cabinet beside the arrangement of artificial flowers. He is black and I am white. I still see him when I go back to Mississippi.

Don’t assume I’m White, or Straight.

October 11, 2018October 12, 2018 assume, gay, Jim Downey, NC, straight, white, Wilmington

Jim Downey,
Wilmington, NC.

Black Dad White Mom Golden Me

June 21, 2015June 21, 2015 Azariah Solomon, bi-racial, black dad, golden, mixed, NC, white mother, Wilmington

Azariah Solomon,
Wilmington, NC.

My brilliant mother always used to say, “One day, there will be no black or white … everyone will look just like you and your sister: golden!

No, I don’t know the landscapers.

June 15, 2015June 15, 2015 Beatrice Arreola, College, DE, Family, internship, landscapers, stereotype, summer, Wilmington

Beatrice Arreola
Wilmington, DE

It was the summer of the end of my sophomore year in college, when I got an internship in an engineering firm. It was my second engineering internship and I was excited that I was working in my field of study. I was part of the small structural section in the company which caused me not to be slightly isolated from the rest of the company. One day I had to go to ask a section leader of another group in the building a question about a project I was working on and after discussing it he asked me if I knew the landscapers that did the company’s lawn. I didn’t and he continued to ask if I was sure because he saw in the newspaper an ad for a landscaping company that had my last name on it. He asked me if I had anyone in my family that worked in landscaping. I thought about it and replied that no one in my family ever worked in landscaping to my knowledge, my father was a trucker and my uncles were either that or farmhands. Finally he said he thought that my dad was one of the landscapers and that he had talked to the president of the firm and that’s how I got a job offer. I told him that I met the company contact at a job fair on campus, was called in for an interview, and then was hired that way. Being a naive college girl it didn’t bother me at the moment but it wasn’t until the end of the week that I came back to think of that conversation that it really began to bother me. To this day I wonder if he thought that because I am of Mexican decent that the only way I could get an opportunity to work there would be if I knew a landscaper? I wonder if he even believed that I was an engineering student.

Wow!!! They really let them teach

September 3, 2013 1970's, Barrinton, DE, Deborah Council, maid, NJ, school, teach, teacher, THEM, Wilmington

Deborah Council
Wilmington, DE

In 1970, I was doing my practice teaching in Barrington, NJ and took on of my student’s to an outing. When I returned her to her home, her mother informed me that the neighbor approached her and told her how lucky she was to have had two (2) maids in a day. She told the neighbor, I wasn’t a maid but her child’s teacher and she responded with the six words stated above

Republican’s Voter Suppression – Racism Still Alive

September 2, 2013 alive, Glenn McIntosh, NC, racism, Reoublican, suppression, Voter, voter suppression, Wilmington

Glenn McIntosh
Wilmington, NC

IT IS QUITE OBVIOUS THAT ALL OF THE ANTICS THAT THE REPUBLICANS ARE DOING ARE RACISM AT IT’S WORSE. CASE IN POINT IS HERE IN NORTH CAROLINA WITH THE REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR AND REPUBLICAN CONTROLLED LEGISLATURE ENACTING NUMEROUS LAWS THAT IS GOING TO MAKE IT DIFFICULT TO VOTE.

“Indian” does not mean math expert.

April 2, 2013April 2, 2013 DE, Harshita Kandarpa, Indian, math, stereotype, Wilmington

Harshita Kandarpa
Wilmington, DE

Asians fail meeting ridiculously high standards

March 17, 2013 Asian, DE, standard, Wilmington

JD
Wilmington, DE

How do I protect my kids?

March 17, 2013March 17, 2013 daughter, DE, judged, kids, Korea, Michele Kacmarcik Savin, Minority, protect, Wilmington

Michele Kacmarcik Savin
Wilmington, DE

When I listened to the report on Wednesday I ached for my daughter… whose birth mother, my husbands first wife, was adopted from Korea. She was teased on the bus as a first grader, and told to go back where she came from… which was Wilmington Delaware! I never imagined we would have to deal with that so early! She looks nothing like her blond haired blue eyed father who was raising her as a single dad when I met them. I have been mom since she was two, and legally adopted her. The assumptions people make are enormous… people would stop me in the grocery store to tell me all about their overseas adoption journeys… when we moved into our current home the neighbors thought my husband so wonderful to have married a single mom with an adopted daughter! But for her when I was pregnant with her brother she hoped for a baby that looked just like her… not possible as I am also blond haired and blue eyed. I look every day for similarities.. and love to point out things that are unique to the two of them .. and their father! The irony of course is that I worry about my white son too… he will be a minority when he grows up… and will also be judged… on history he did not contribute to.

Dirty Mexican, go mow my lawn.

March 15, 2013 DE, dirty, lawn, Mexican, stereotype, Wilmington

Toby
Wilmington, DE

Race. Tells. You. Nothing. About. Me.

May 31, 2012 assumptions, D. Harris, DE, individuals, ME, nothing, Race, tells, views, Wilmington

D Harris
Wilmington, DE

I’m amused at the assumptions that many people make about a person based on their race even if they are a member of that same race. All people are individuals and not limited by anyone’s views as to who they are based on race.

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