“What I hope this will be in the long run, is an archive for people to research and help better understand this period that we are living in now and even experience with race in the past,” said Norris on Feb. 11, 2014 at the Grand Theatre on SLCC’s South City Campus.
The Race Card Project is a goal and message to get the conversation started about those barriers which affect everything from one’s self-worth to culturally defining one’s being.
Norris’s message is that speaking and having a conversation on the issue of race will have a greater effect on the populous than responding with anger, passive aggression and belligerence.
Norris’ project consists of choosing six words to describe a negative or positive interaction dealing with identity and writing it on a small card, “A Race Card.”
In collaboration with SLCC’s writing department and honoring Black History Month, a Race Card exhibit is at the Salt Lake City Public Library for viewing through Feb. 28. All are welcome to view the exhibit and contribute their own Race Card.
“I will say one thing in having these dialogues, they can be difficult, and it’s ok to admit they can be difficult or are going to be difficult, but it goes back to listening and having that space for people. You can shut down the conversation by letting people know they offended you, or you can keep the dialogue going by asking, ‘Well, why do you think that or why did you say that,’” said Norris during her speech at SLCC.
