I went to Michele Norris’s talk about her initiative called the Race Card Project on November 8th. Before opening up a question and answer session, Norris explained the main ideas behind her work. She asks people to write a six-word sentence on a notecard about their personal perspective on race in America. She shared several of the cards she has received, and many of them were moving. One, in particular, stuck with me: “There are no categories besides humans.” I think these six words embody the Race Card Project at its root; at the end of the day, if everyone saw each other as equals, race would not be such a taboo in this country.
Norris mentioned how college campuses are often the most diverse environments we experience in our lives because as we get older, we move into more concentric circles. This is definitely something I am going to keep in mind as I continue the next four years here.
Finally, the most meaningful part of the presentation was seeing how listeners interpreted Norris’s words during the question and answer section. One student asked Norris if it is possible to move forward without addressing the past. Norris responded without hesitation. She said trying to move on without addressing the past would be like driving without looking in the rearview mirror. Trying to shove our country’s ugly past under the rug will not improve anything. Norris added on to her analogy by pointing out that the objects in rearview mirror are also closer than they appear, meaning that the system-imposed racism in our country is more recent than it feels. She specifically brought up Jim Crow legislation, and that even though it is no longer in place, you cannot legislate what is in someone’s heart.
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