The Race Card

Last week, I attended one of the Sharp Series events called “The Race Card.” The speaker was Michele Morris, and she came to campus to talk about race in the United States and The Race Card project. The project essentially allows for people to submit six word stories on post cards. Today, they have received over 500,000 cards from 50 states and 96 countries. Some stories include “Lady, I don’t want your purse” and “Black babies cost less to adopt.” Morris talked about how the most important part of work that she does is listen. For instance, another one of the six word stories that she shared was “I’m white and pay the price.” It is important to hear from all perspectives, even if we don’t necessarily agree with them. Morris also talked about the importance of having a conversation about race in a public forum, since it is such a difficult subject to talk about. If these discussions are held in a public forum, then it allows for growth and progress. We need to get more comfortable with being uncomfortable and stepping out of our comfort zones. It was especially interesting to see this discussion take place on the University of Richmond’s campus, as the city of Richmond’s history with race is so layered and the school is very dedicated to being more integrated and inclusive, given the lack of racial interaction across different races that currently occurs on this campus.