People are asking why it’s so hard to talk about race. One reason might be that we don’t really understand what the word “race” means––for ourselves or for others. “Race” points to the entirety of our species, yet it’s as personal as our own skin.
In a series of workshops entitled Listening to Race, my colleagues and I begin with the assumption that if we want to talk about race, we need to first listen to what race means to the people we are in conversation with. So, we give people sticky notes and ask them to write down all the words and phrases that they associate with the word “race.” These notes are then posted up on the wall for everyone to see.
The following poem is composed entirely of words contributed by participants in our first three workshops. The ordering of the words and the choice of typeface and color is my contribution.
Race is… A Poem
