The month of October began with a stacked deck.
On Oct. 1, in conjunction with the exhibition “RACE: Are We So Different?” at Carnegie Museum of Natural History, journalist Michele Norris spoke on “Eavesdropping on America’s Conversation on Race” at Carnegie Music Hall, Oakland. A host and special correspondent for NPR, where she initiated “The Race Card Project,” asking participants to express their experiences of race in six words, Norris shared some of the insight she gained in the endeavor.
Her book, “The Grace of Silence: A Memoir,” focuses on how America talks about race in the wake of Barack Obama’s presidential election and explores her own family’s racial legacy. (Editor’s note—Norris was a featured author along with Isabel Wilkerson in 2012 for Pittsburgh Arts & Legacy).
The Race Card Project is a result of the response to her book and earlier this year was acknowledged with a prestigious George Foster Peabody Award for excellence in electronic communications for turning a pejorative phrase into a productive and far-reaching dialogue on a difficult topic. The Six Word Stories that poured into the mailbox and the online inbox became the basis for a series of reports on NPR’s morning edition, exploring identity, prejudice, pride and equality.
A recent website posts in the wake of police killings of unarmed Black men underscore the need for dialog: Don’t shoot, I’ll change the world. “America’s conversation on race has only just begun,” said Norris.
One woman revealed she had saved an invitation to a lynching; her six words— “grandfather’s poker gift, a hanging invitation.” Norris followed up on that entry, the result was a segment that aired on NPR’s “Morning Edition” in July.
Norris shared the story of that segment. “The invitation is formal. It looks like an invitation to a wedding or some sort of rather swank affair. We know from our reporting that invitations to hangings in the early 20th century were fairly common. And in fact, in Montana, they were required by law.” That particular hanging was “a triple.” Because her grandfather was a county auditor, he, by law, would have been required to attend that hanging. She remember what she heard him say long ago with her nine-year old ears: It was awful.
There are a number of entries from Pittsburgh posted on The Race Card Project website, including these:
“Sheltered white girl now values diversity.”
“Interracial couples: we are the future.”
“Newspaper says ‘Black youths’ not ‘kids.’”
This quote (a word short of six)—“I’m afraid of Black men,” was posted with this comment “I don’t know why. And I don’t mean just in a dark, desolate alley—where I’d be afraid of any man. I am just more afraid of Black men. It makes me feel ashamed of myself.”
Norris concluded her remarks with her own six-word story: “Fooled them all, not done yet.”
(The website can be found at www.theracecardproject.com The exhibition “RACE: Are We So Different?” is on view at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History through Oct. 27. For more information call 412.622.3131 or go to www.carnegiemnh.org.)
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