March 11, 2014
Michele Norris of National Public Radio (NPR) created The Race Card Project. In the project, people are asked to submit their thoughts on race and ethnicity in just six words. I encourage you to visit the site yourself, as well as listen to some of the more in-depth radio profiles that she's done on NPR:
Six Words: 'Ask Who I Am, Not What'
Six Words: 'Black Babies Cost Less To Adopt'
Six Words: 'Where Are You Really From?'
Today, she gave a lecture at the Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy, so I went and made some notes:
She started by printing 200 cards at her local Kinko's in Washington DC and asked people to express your thoughts on race and ethnicity in just six words.
The first cards were very aspirational, like "I don't see color, only people." At some point in the first year, people started to post more provocative messages. Interestingly, people started including their real names at around this time.
Michele reflected on learning about how multi-dimensional race issues are -- some of the themes that she found unexpectedly popular included adoption and bi-racial identities: "One of the biggest lessons for me is that our conversation has been too pinched."
Some other quotes:
Coincidentally, just yesterday, independent filmmakers Wong Fu Productions put out this light-hearted take on some of the issues discussed:
At the end of the talk, an audience member asked, "What do you do when someone does or says something discriminatory or biased?"
"Keep the conversation going," Michele suggested. "Perhaps say, 'Hmm, that's interesting. What do you mean by that?'" This approach makes sense to me -- not saying anything isn't productive, and getting angry could backfire. In more than one way, continuing the conversation, gathering more six-word essays, and sharing stories and narratives seem like the right things to do.
Update (03/13/2014): Here is an audio recording from the event:
Previous: Journalism by Algorithm
Next: The Ones Left Behind